Borderline Personality Disorder: An evidence-based guide for generalist mental health professionals

Over the past two decades considerable progress has been made in developing specialist psychosocial treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet the majority of people with BPD receive treatment within generalist mental health services, rather than specialist treatment centres.

This is a book for general mental health professionals who treat people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). It offers practical guidance on how to help people with BPD with advice based on research evidence. After a discussion of the symptoms of BPD, the authors review all the generalist treatment interventions that have resulted in good outcomes in randomised controlled trials, when compared with specialist treatments, and summarise the effective components of these interventions. The treatment strategies are organised into a structured approach called Structured Clinical Management (SCM), which can be delivered by general mental health professionals without extensive additional training.

The heart of the book outlines the principles underpinning SCM and offers a step-by-step guide to the clinical intervention. Practitioners can learn the interventions easily and develop more confidence in treating people with BPD. In addition, a chapter is devoted to how to help families - an issuecommonly neglected when treating patients with BPD. Finally the authors discuss the top 10 strategies for delivering treatment and outline how the general mental health clinician can deliver these strategies competently.

Anthony W. Bateman, Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, Visiting Professor University College, London and Consultant Anna Freud Centre, London, UK,Roy Krawitz, Consultant Psychiatrist and DBT therapist, Waikato District Health Board, and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Auckland University, New Zealand

Anthony W. Bateman is Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Halliwick Unit, Barnet, Enfield, and Haringey Mental Health Trust, Visiting Professor University College, London and Consultant to the Anna Freud Centre, London. He developed mentalization based treatment with Peter Fonagy for borderline personality disorder and studied its effectiveness in research trials. An adapted version is now being used in other psychiatric disorders and in the treatment of families and adolescents. He was an expert member of National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) development group for treatment guidelines for Borderline Personality Disorder in UK. He is President of the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ESSPD).

He has authored several books including 'Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Mentalization based treatment' and 'Mentalization Based Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder: A practical guide' (with Peter Fonagy).

Roy Krawitz is a psychiatrist and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer (Auckland University) specializing for the last 20 years in working with people with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and is a director and trainer of a company providing DBT training. Roy has published research demonstrating the effectiveness of his generalist borderline personality disorder trainings (125 two-day trainings), the clinical effectiveness of his past therapy, and the clinical effectiveness of the DBT service in which he works. Roy is the author of 14 scientific articles and 5 other books on BPD (including client and clinician guides published by Oxford University Press in four languages in total).