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Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual’s sense of self-identity. Learn more about Borderline Personality Disorder.

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Featured Studies

Featured studies include only those currently recruiting participants. Studies with the most recent start date appear first.

Isolating Mechanisms in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Study Type: Interventional
Start Date: October 15, 2017
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Eligibility: Ages 18 and Older, Does Not Accept Healthy Volunteers

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a commonly occurring, severe, and costly condition that interferes greatly with quality of life. Considerable comorbidity with other disorders and existing multicomponent treatments with largely untested putative mechanisms of action represent obstacles for effective dissemination of BPD treatment; in light of this gap, the purpose of the present study is to isolate the effects of individual treatment components on putative mechanisms implicated in both BPD. This study will answer important theoretical questions about the mechanism of treatment change, and might lead to more efficacious, cost-effective, and easily disseminable treatment strategies for BPD, a severe and understudied disorder.

A Study Examining Adolescents With Non-Suicidal Self-Injury

Study Type: Observational
Start Date: August 31, 2016
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Eligibility: Females, Ages 12–16, Accepts Healthy Volunteers

This study will examine longitudinal brain development in young adolescent girls with a history of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI). Specifically, three constructs outlined by the the Research Domains Criteria (RDoC) will be examined through self-assessment, MRI, and a cognitive battery.

The Staged Treatment in Early Psychosis Study

Study Type: Interventional
Start Date: April 30, 2016
Locations: Glenroy, Victoria, Australia; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Eligibility: Ages 12–25, Does Not Accept Healthy Volunteers

A sequential multistage randomised clinical trial (SMART) to produce evidence to guide a step-wise clinical approach for the treatment of ultra high risk patients and reduction of risk for psychosis and other deleterious clinical and/or functional outcomes.

Effectiveness of PTSD Treatment For Suicidal and Multi-Diagnostic Clients

Study Type: Interventional
Start Date: February 29, 2016
Location: Seattle, Washington
Eligibility: Ages 12 and Older, Does Not Accept Healthy Volunteers

The present project has two primary aims: (1) to examine the effectiveness of a multi-component implementation strategy in improving adoption and adherence to the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE) protocol, and (2) to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the DBT PE protocol in a sample of individuals receiving DBT in public mental health agencies. This study uses a hybrid type 2 effectiveness-implementation design to simultaneously test the clinical effectiveness of DBT + DBT PE and to evaluate an adaptive, multi-component implementation strategy. The effectiveness trial will use a quasi-experimental, controlled design to evaluate outcomes among DBT clients with PTSD who do versus do not receive the DBT PE protocol and outcomes will be benchmarked to those obtained in research settings.