Meaningful Ways of Understanding and Measuring Change for People with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Thematic...

The effective treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) presents healthcare providers with a significant challenge. The evidence base remains limited partially due to a lack of professional consensus and service user involvement regarding ways of measuring change. As a result, the limited evidence that is available draws on such a wide range of outcome measures, that comparison across treatment types is hindered, maintaining a lack of clarity regarding the clinical needs of this group.

This investigation aimed to follow the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2009) research recommendations by asking service users about meaningful change within their recovery. This forms a starting point for the future development of a tailored outcome measure.

Fifteen service users with a diagnosis of BPD participated in three focus groups across two specialist Personality Disorder services. The focus groups were analysed using Thematic Analysis.

Two superordinate themes were synthesized from the data: (1) recovery to what?: 'How do you rewrite who you are?'; and (2) conditions for change. Each superordinate theme further consisted of three subordinate themes which elucidated the over-arching themes.

This investigation highlights the complex nature of measuring change in people who have received a BPD diagnosis. Further research is needed to develop meaningful ways of measuring change according to the needs and priorities of people with BPD.