The diagnosis has a worse reputation than its prognosis.
Most people who meet criteria stop meeting them. The harder questions are which treatment, how to reach one in California, and what to do while you wait.
Start with the question in front of you.
Borderline personality disorder: what actually treats it
The nine criteria, the prognosis data, and what actually treats it.
02The prognosisDoes BPD get better?
Two prospective cohorts followed for a decade and more.
03The differentialBPD or bipolar disorder?
Which criteria discriminate, which do not, and what to bring.
04TreatmentDBT: what it is, and what it isn't
Four components, the trials, and what DBT is not.
05MedicationDoes medication treat borderline personality disorder?
What no drug is approved for, and the deprescribing conversation.
06Under 18Can a teenager be diagnosed with BPD?
Both sides of the adolescent diagnostic debate.
07FamiliesLoving someone with BPD
Standard advice with no evidence behind it, and what has some.
08PrintableCheck a DBT programme before you commit a year to it
Six questions, a score, and what to do when nothing is nearby.
Most of California cannot reach a full DBT programme.
Four-component DBT — individual therapy, skills group, phone coaching and a consultation team for the clinician — exists in parts of the state and not in others. The trial evidence does not show it beating other structured treatments, which means a reader outside its reach has not missed the only real option. The worksheet checks what a programme actually offers before you pay for it.
Check a programme before you pay →No diagnosis by paragraph, and no figure repeated because it is famous.
These pages help you read a criterion list honestly, tell two conditions apart, inspect a treatment programme and prepare for an appointment. They do not tell you whether you have this diagnosis. Where the most-quoted number comes from a study design that cannot support it, the page says so and gives the prospective figure instead.
See how evidence is checked →