Psychopharmacology of borderline personality disorder: a review

Borderline personality disorder poses a significant treatment challenge to the clinician. The frequent presence of comorbid disorders and the occurrence of a wide array of possible target symptoms complicate clinical assessment. Limited data from controlled clinical trials suggest that neuroleptics, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and the anticonvulsant carbamazepine produce statistically and clinically significant short-term symptom reduction and may be useful components of the treatment approach to borderline personality disorder. Further research is needed to identify subgroups of patients with borderline personality disorder who are particularly responsive to a given medication and to explore the possibility that specific symptom complexes (such as suspiciousness, anhedonia, affective lability, or behavioral dyscontrol) are preferentially responsive to specific agents.