Adult attachment in the clinical management of Borderline Personality Disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a commonpsychiatric disorder associated with severefunctional impairment, high rates of suicide andcomorbid psychiatric illness, intensive use oftreatment, and high costs to society. The etiologyand pathogenesis of BPD are still uncertain,although an interaction between biological andpsychosocial factors has been proposed to explainhow the condition develops. Attachment disturbancesrepresent one of the developmental riskfactors that have been most consistently found tobe associated with BPD, with a number of studiesreporting a significant strong association betweeninsecure attachment and BPD, notwithstandingthe variety of measures and attachment typesemployed in these studies. In this article, theauthor first reviews clinical descriptions andresearch findings concerning the associationbetween attachment disturbances and BPD andthen discusses how attachment theory may helpclinicians who work with patients with BPD betterunderstand the psychopathology of the illness andplan treatment.