title: Adult attachment in the clinical management of borderline personality disorder.
abstract: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common psychiatric disorder associated with severe functional impairment, high rates of suicide and comorbid psychiatric illness, intensive use of treatment, and high costs to society. The etiology and pathogenesis of BPD are still uncertain, although an interaction between biological and psychosocial factors has been proposed to explain how the condition develops. Attachment disturbances represent one of the developmental risk factors that have been most consistently found to be associated with BPD, with a number of studies reporting a significant strong association between insecure attachment and BPD, notwithstanding the variety of measures and attachment types employed in these studies. In this article, the author first reviews clinical descriptions and research findings concerning the association between attachment disturbances and BPD and then discusses how attachment theory may help clinicians who work with patients with BPD better understand the psychopathology of the illness and plan treatment.
authors.affiliation: Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. fossati.andrea@hsr.it
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fossati
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011582:Psychological Theory; D013811:Psychotherapeutic Processes; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012944:Social Support