NEA-BPD Telephone Hour

Friday, April 3, 2009 6:00-7:00 p.m. (EST)

Confronting Myths and Stereotypes

about Borderline Personality Disorder
with Dr. Richard Hersh

Clinicians treating patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) face challenges in making and communicating an accurate diagnosis and implementing an informed and appropriate plan for treatment in part because of longstanding myths and stereotypes about the BPD diagnosis and the individuals who might carry the disorder.

BPD has been a controversial diagnosis among mental health professionals since its inception and it has remained poorly understood by the general public. Some persistent myths about BPD include:

	▪	BPD is a rarely seen condition
	▪	BPD is a psychiatric diagnosis unique for its lack of validity
	▪	BPD has an unremittingly negative prognosis
	▪	BPD is a diagnosis clinicians give to patients who make them angry
	▪	BPD is a diagnosis clinicians give to patients who they do not like
	▪	Clinicians should delay giving patients a diagnosis of BPD until all other possible concurrent psychiatric disorders are in remission
	▪	Patients with BPD should never be told their diagnosis
	▪	If clinicians communicate a diagnosis of BPD this will hinder, not help, patients in their progress
	▪	Clinicians treating patients with BPD assume unreasonable liability in doing so
	▪	The stigma associate with BPD comes from the confusing name of the disorder; if the name were changed the stigma would be removed

In recent years research on BPD has yielded new, effective evidence-based treatments for a disorder with a better prognosis than was previously understood. Patients may be denied accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment recommendations because clinicians and others cleave to outmoded thinking about the disorder. Patients, family members, clinicians and advocacy groups together can dispel the myths about BPD, confront the mistaken stereotypes, and promote accurate assessment of and treatment for the disorder.

NEA-BPD is pleased to sponsor this telephone call-in hour. Dr. Hersh will discuss the many myths about BPD and replace them instead with the latest research and evidence-based facts. There will be an opportunity at the end of the hour for participants' questions.

Participation is limited -- Pre-registration required

Richard Hersh earned a B.A. degree in History from Stanford University and an M.D. degree from George Washington University. He completed a residency in psychiatry at Northwestern University and previously served as Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School while an attending psychiatrist at McLean and Massachusetts General Hospitals. He is currently as Associate Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Associate Director of the Intensive Outpatient Program at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Hersh is also a candidate at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.

Aerin Hyun is currently a resident in Adult Psychiatry at Columbia University. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she earned undergraduate degrees Bioengineering and English Literature, and graduate/professional degrees in Medicine and English Literature. Her Special Field training in English was on the intellectual history of American psychoanalysis and her dissertation, entitled “Evaluating the Borderline Personality: A Study of Identity and Narrative Voice,” examines historical and cultural influences on current conceptions of the Borderline Personality Disorder. She is a graduate of the Medical Scholars Program at UIUC, member of Phi Kappa Phi, and recipient of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism in Medicine Award, as well as of the University of Illinois College of Medicine Bennett Award for Excellence in Teaching, the UIUC College of Medicine Award for Significant Contributions in Psychiatry, and the UIUC Department of English Roxanne A. Decyk Scholar Fellowship. Her current academic interests include psychoanalysis (adult and child), child and adolescent psychiatry, and medical student education.