Adapting Supportive Psychotherapy for Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder Who Self-Injure or Attempt Suicide

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Abstract
We have utilized supportive therapy (ST) with an outpatient population with borderline personality disorder (BPD) who also engage in nonsuicidal self-injurious and suicidal behavior. In recent years, ST has been described as an active psychotherapeutic approach that may have efficacy comparable to other psychotherapies. ST emphasizes the mobilization of strengths to enhance self-esteem and utilize adaptive defenses and positive coping skills. Patients with BPD who self-injure and attempt suicide require integration of tangible solution-focused approaches with standard ST in order to address negative thinking patterns, impulsive behavior, and affective dysregulation, along with crisis intervention during periodic crisis states. ST appears to be well tolerated by patients with BPD who have self-injurious behavior and may be efficacious in engaging BPD patients in treatment and in minimizing the frequency and intensity of self-injurious and suicidal behavior.