Series on borderline personality disorder launched

Rawalpindi : The Centre for Global Mental Health (CGMH) has launched a series of Interest Groups for mental health professionals while hosted the inaugural program of the series, the first session on the theme ‘Borderline Personality Disorder’ here at a psychiatry set-up.

Director CGMH Professor Fareed A Minhas and Dr. Aysha Minhas hosted the first session of the series. Dr. Saadia Muzaffar was the distinguished guest speaker and Professor Mowadat Hussain Rana was the chief guest on the occasion. In attendance were consultant psychiatrists, psychologists, and post-graduate residents from the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Talking to ‘The News’, Dr. Fareed Minhas said the aim of launching of these interest groups is to bring interested professionals onto a common platform to discuss and learn about matters related to pertinent issues in the field. He believes that this will foster continued medical education and address those areas that are not adequately focused during the training years of mental health professionals.

At the inaugural session, Dr. Minhas started the proceedings while talking about the inception of the idea of the interest groups particularly focusing on Borderline Personality Disorder. He spoke about the inadequacy of psychotherapeutic service available for psychiatric patients. He acknowledged that training programmes across the country predominantly focus on diagnostic and pharmacological treatment. The focus that psychotherapeutic work deserves is hardly provided in training years.

He shared his experience with Borderline Personality Disorders (BPD) in particular and acknowledged the helplessness that clinicians face with such patients. These interest groups, he said, are a mean to compensate that deficiency in mental health services to whatever extent possible, and further to motivate those at the helm of affairs in Pakistani Psychiatry to take these matters up at a larger scale.

Speaking on the occasion, Professor Mowadat appreciated Professor Fareed’s initiative, endorsed his comments, and offered his full support for the proposed sessions. He further added that psychiatric disorders, unlike disorders of other medical specialties are not simply disorders effecting individuals; their impact extends to families and societies. He also recommended that dissociative disorders, for their prevalence and impact, should also be added under the umbrella and addressed in these sessions.

Consultant General Psychiatrist from Hampshire, UK Dr. Saadia Muzaffar said the patients of BPD live in a realty that may not be the reality you and I live in, nevertheless, it is imperative to believe in their reality. She went on to identify abnormal circumstances of development leading to an insecure disorganised type of attachment; the primary caregiver is emotionally unavailable to the developing child. As a consequence they don’t develop the reflective capacity to express their emotions; their emotions are non-verbally communicated as we see in clinical practice. Further, they are unable to realise the integration of the good and the bad in one person; and so polarization remains.

She stated that the course of BPD is understandably long-term and chronic. The disorder is of a fluctuant nature and particularly exacerbated in periods of stress; these stress-induced exacerbations may even surprise clinicians with first-time presentations in old-age.

After a detailed lecture by Dr. Saadia, Professor Minhas invited the audience to advise the development of local recommendations for dealing with BPD in indigenous settings. Upon hearing everyone’s contributions he concluded that the guidelines prepared in our neighbouring country India may be reviewed and with Dr. Saadia’s supervision adapted for local use.