Borderline Personality and medication question

[Marshall1]

Those of you who work in psych...do you think antidepressants such as Cymbalta, etc (not psychotropics) are effective for people with BPD? I realize CBT is a part of treatment but given the totality of someone with this diagnosis, wouldn't medication be beneficial?

[elkpark]

There is no medication that "treats" BPD. Some medications can be helpful as adjunctive therapy for some of the individual symptoms of BPD, but psychotherapy is the primary treatment and DBT is the preferred psychotherapy approach.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I agree with Elkpark. Medications can treat some of the symptoms....for instance, if the BPD patient is depressed, then an antidepression medication can be helpful. BPD is a personality disorder though. It's not generally helped by medications since the behavior in it is the person's coping skill. The person has to see there's a problem, want to change it, and go through therapy...