The Suicidal Risk in Severe Personality Disorders: Differential Diagnosis and Treatment

This article examines the clinical approach to patients with severe personality disorders who present suicidal ideation & behavior. It describes the diagnostic evaluation of patients’ suicidal potential, personality disorder, & the presence or absence of various regressive illnesses. The analysis of the combined features in these three symptomatic domains determines alternative strategies of various interventions. Within these strategies, transference-focused psychotherapy is described as a specific psychodynamic psychotherapy geared to treat characterologically based suicidal & parasuicidal tendencies. (7 refs.) (AK)