Volume 36 · Number 5
MAY 2006
Integrated Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder
By John M. Oldham, MD
Perhaps in no other area of clinical psychiatry is the importance of careful and sophisticated integration of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy as central as in the treatment of personality disorders (PDs). The only American Psychiatric Association (APA) evidence-based practice guideline that recommends psychotherapy as the primary, or core, treatment is the practice guideline for the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This practice guideline also recommends symptom-targeted adjunctive pharmacotherapy. Although the combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is reported anecdotally in the clinical literature for a number of other personality disorders (eg, schizotypal, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant), the most extensively studied and the most prevalent PD in treatment populations is BPD, which will be the focus of this article.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Oldham is professor and chairman, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC.
Address reprint requests to: John M. Oldham, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, 67 President Street, 5 South Charleston, SC 29425; or e-mail oldhamj@musc.edu.
Targeted Treatments: Harmonic or Sequential Augmentation
Jan Fawcett, MD
Combining Pharmacotherapy & Psychotherapy
Jesse H. Wright, MD, PhD;
Michael Hollifield, MD
A 28-year-old Woman and Her 58-year-old Mother With a Shared Psychotic Disorder
Nahla Mahgoub, MD;
Asghar Hossain, MD, DFAPA
The Rationale for Combining Medication and Psychotherapy
Glen O. Gabbard, MD
Combining Cognitive Therapy and Medication for Mood Disorders
Edward S. Friedman, MD;
Jesse H. Wright, MD, PhD;
Robin B. Jarrett, PhD;
Michael E. Thase, MD
Integrating Therapies for Anxiety Disorders
Michael Hollifield, MD;
Amanda Mackey, MD;
Jonathan Davidson, MD
Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy in the Treatment of Somatoform Disorders
Don R. Lipsitt, MD;
Vladan Starcevic, MD, PhD, FRANZCP
Psychodynamic Perspective on Combining Therapies
Michelle B. Riba, MD, MS;
Allan Tasman, MD
