Lived experiences of adults with borderline personality disorder: a qualitative systematic review protocol

The objectives of this review are: to explore the lived experiences of individuals with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and to present recommendations for policy, practice, education and research.

Borderline personality disorder is a mental disorder characterized by poor capacity to engage in effective relationships, intense and sudden mood changes, poor self-image and emotion regulation, significant impulsivity and severe functional impairment. Studies estimate the prevalence of BPD at 15% to 22% and identify a predominantly negative attitude among health professionals towards individuals with BPD. This review will examine the lived experiences of people with a diagnosis of BPD in order to better understand this condition.

This review will include peer-reviewed qualitative studies on adults with a diagnosis of BPD in all settings and from any geographical location.

A three-step search strategy will be used. A search strategy has been developed for MEDLINE. A second search using all identified keywords and index terms will be conducted across MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Embase. Studies will be screened by title and abstract by two independent reviewers against the review inclusion criteria. The full text of selected citations will be assessed against the inclusion criteria and for methodological quality. Qualitative data will be extracted from included papers using a standardized data extraction tool. Qualitative research findings will be pooled using the meta-aggregation approach. The final synthesized findings will be graded according to the ConQual approach and presented in a Summary of Findings.

PROSPERO CRD42019141098.