do you tell your Borderline pts about their diagnosis?

[IndigoGirl1234]

Personally, if you're going to tell the patient that they have BPD (or any diagnosis) take the time to explain your rationale behind the diagnosis/how the person meets DSMV criteria, and speak about how it is thought to develop.

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[VMSmith]

I think it's very important to tell a patient that they have BPD if you think that's their diagnosis. What other disorder in medicine do we tell patients they have one thing but actually believe it's something else? And then prescribe them a cocktail of medications that makes no sense because they keep coming back with the same problems because you're not getting them the treatment they need to address their actual diagnosis because that would require you to tell them what they actually have?

 

[smalltownpsych]

It is often difficult to tell them the diagnosis because they have been "Bipolar" for so long. Not surprisingly benzos seem to be the only drug that really works for their bipolar. I usually will tell the patient after rapport has been established and they have begun to acknowledge that there is no magic pill and then I can talk to them about the hard work of treatment. Increasing distress tolerance is key to the recovery and the seeking of instant relief from anything including medications is directly counter to that.

I also advise the patients to talk to their prescriber about not making changes with their current medication regimen unless necessary. I don't want the unstable affect central to the diagnosis to be confounded by an unstable medication regimen.