Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a serious psychiatric illness characterized by dysfunction in the regulation of emotion, behavior, relationships, thinking and one’s sense of self.  It is associated with substantial impairments in work and family life.  It involves sometimes rapid variability in moods that leads to disruption in many settings and sometimes leads to harmful behaviors including suicidality.

BPD appears prevalent in around 2% of the general population.  In the community of those who regularly seek mental health care, the prevalence is thought to be as high as 20%.  The mortality rate from BPD is thought to be as high as 10%.  BPD has high rates of co- morbidity with substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety disorders.