New treatment guidelines for borderline personality disorder — believed to affect as much as 2.7% of the United States population — were developed with leadership from a behavioral health expert at Oregon Health & Science University.
George Keepers, M.D., Elda V. Carruthers professor and chair of psychiatry in the OHSU School of Medicine, chaired the Practice Guideline Writing Group that developed the guideline released this week by the American Psychiatric Association.
“Several key findings emerged from the thorough and critical review of the literature conducted to develop this Guideline,” Keepers said. “First, several structured psychotherapies were found to be effective for treatment of borderline personality disorder. No therapy emerged as a ‘gold standard.’
“Second, no evidence was found for any pharmacotherapy’s effectiveness in treating the core symptoms of the disorder. This finding led to the recommendations designed to limit polypharmacy and prolonged treatment with medications. We anticipate that many more patients will be able to access psychotherapeutic treatment and that clinicians will avoid the risks of ineffective pharmacologic treatment as a result of this guideline.”
Keepers has served on the OHSU faculty since 1981 and has chaired the Department of Psychiatry since 2001.
He is director of the Complex Neuropsychiatry Clinic, and also director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Clinic. He is one of the country’s leading authorities on schizophrenia, and chaired a writing group through APA that developed updated treatment guidelines for the condition in 2021.