Npd

[HazelLPN, LPN]

I'm an old MICU nurse from the dark ages and havent' worked on a psych unit since I was in nursing school. We occasionally have psych consults when the patients stabilize, but they are usually are out of the unit when they are evaluated.

This weekend I cared for a 37 y/o male suicide attempt by OD who has been diagnosed with NPD....narcissistic personality disorder. After we lavaged him, decreased his sedation and finally got him extubated and off Os we kept him on the unit for a day before sending him up to the floor. I read up on NPD and it sounds absolutely dreadful. The internet resources paint a pretty bleak picture of the success rates for treatment. His poor mother and significant other have suffered as much as he has....if not more. My grandson suffers from OCD and I felt almost a kindship with his family in feeling so powerless to help someone they love. The MICU saved his life....but critical care drugs and high tech equipment can't do a darn thing for mental illness.

Do any real psych nurses have experience treating patients with this disorder? If so...are the internet resources correct that the outlook for treatment is very poor? In my 50+ years of nursing, this is the first NPD patient that I have ever encountered.

Thx!

Mrs H

[Morgan314]

I've worked in Mental Health for a long time, but have seen very few patients who have an official Axis II dx of Narcisstic PD. Most MH patients have some kind of personality disorder, but usually the focus of treatment is on their Axis I dx. Why would a Narcisstic person attempt suicide?