Borderline personality disorder: Medicine’s biggest stigma diagnosis?
Associate Professor Sathya Rao says the lives of patients can change for the better when offered the right treatment
Arguably, there are few diagnoses that carries greater stigma than borderline personality disorder — even within the medical profession itself.
Perhaps it’s the way lines blur between the person and the condition, and perhaps because therapeutic options appear so limited.
Associate Professor Sathya Rao is a psychiatrist and clinical director at Spectrum, a personality disorder service based in Victoria.
With the service launching a new guide on the disorder for GPs, he talks to Australian Doctor about the stigma, how his patients react when told of their diagnosis and whether the name should change.
