During inpatient hospitalizations, do you inform patients you are diagnosing them with a personality disorder?

It would be a bit presumptuous to diagnose a personality disorder based on a brief hospital stay. I generally try to avoid labeling people as much as possible. I usually discuss their presentation's symptoms and how they affect them and their well-being. Whenever possible, I discuss their experience...

I find this to be an important and complicated question.

I think it is imperative that psychiatrists provide their patients with their diagnosis and prognosis. Insight into their illness is very important and we cannot ask individuals to challenge this insight if they do not know their diagnosis. Th...

Yes, almost always. I trained with the Gunderson BPD materials and prioritize thoughtful disclosure and education that I believe all patients deserve. Only if the patient is very resistant to working together in general, won't be on my service past a day or two, or some other extenuating circumstanc...

As psychiatrists, we have a profound opportunity to help patients more effectively by assertively and swiftly identifying underlying personality structures that shape and inform clinical presentations. There has often been a reluctance to do this out of a fear of appearing judgmental, which inadvert...