Borderline Personality Disorder: stigma and young people

Evidence demonstrates that Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a highly stigmatised condition. A number of studies suggest that the diagnostic label of ‘BPD’ elicits particular negative beliefs and emotions in psychiatric nurses relating to sympathy, rejection, and optimism. This seems to stem from inaccurate beliefs about how stable and controllable the cause of behaviour and behaviour itself are in people with BPD, and how dangerous people with BPD are.

This research bulletin aims to review and integrate research relating to stigma, BPD and young people, and the influence this then has on diagnosis. Some of the studies relate specifically to BPD, and others to personality disorder more broadly; the latter are included in this review when the research focuses on the psychiatric inpatient setting, where BPD  is the most prevalent personality disorder (PD).