The use of buprenorphine/naloxone to treat borderline personality disorder: a case report

The use of buprenorphine/naloxone to treat borderline personality disorder: a case report

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Abstract Background Using traditional pharmacotherapy to treat Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) such as mood stabilizers and second-generation antipsychotics has a lack of supporting evidence.Buprenorphine/Naloxone (BUP/N), a combination medication consisting of a partial opioid agonist, and a full opioid antagonist, is an effective treatment for opioid use disorder.It has also been found effective for treatment-resistant mood disorders.Previous studies suggest a relationship between BPD and endogenous opioids, therefore our case report investigates the effect of BUP/N on a patient diagnosed with BPD.

Case presentation pomyslnaszycie.com A 26-year-old female diagnosed with BPD, having recurrent visits to the emergency department (ED) for self-harm/suicidality was treated with BUP/N.Usage of crisis services, ED visits, and hospital admissions were tracked from 15 months prior to BUP/N to 15 months after using BUP/N.Since starting BUP/N, the length and frequency of mental health-related hospital admissions decreased drastically, as did the number of times that she reached out to community crisis poise pads in bulk services.Since the dosing adjustment to 6 mg in Oct 2020, there have been no calls to the community crisis lines.

Conclusions We suggest pharmacological treatment targeting BPD as a disorder of distress tolerance and self-soothing mediated by the opioid system is an effective individual healing attempt.An important note is that this patient did not use opioids prior to BUP/N and had never been diagnosed with an opioid use disorder.However, she exhausted multiple other pharmacologic therapies and was open to trying whatever was available to improve her quality of life.