Clinical Staging as a Novel Approach for Selecting Psychological Treatment Levels for Older Adults with Borderline Personality Disorder

• Published in: Clinical gerontologist pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Ouwens, Machteld A, Videler, Arjan C, van Alphen, Sebastiaan P J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 21-02-2022
• Subjects: Clinical staging; older adults; treatment; psychotherapy; borderline personality disorder
• ISSN: 0731-7115; 1545-2301
• DOI: 10.1080/07317115.2022.2041143

In this paper, a novel approach is presented for selecting psychological treatment levels for older adults with borderline personality disorder (BPD). BPD tends to be a lifelong disorder persisting into old age, with a specific presentation of BPD symptoms in later life, which is illustrated by three different clinical cases.
Recently, a clinical staging and health management model for BPD was presented to assist in selecting appropriate treatment approaches.
We combined this clinical staging model for BPD across the lifespan with psychotherapeutic treatment levels for older adults with personality disorders.
This may allow for a more accurate treatment selection for older adults with BPD and was applied to the three clinical cases. Finally, implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.