Early life trauma and borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a chronic mental health disorder affecting approximately 1% of the Australian population. Individuals with BPD have unstable mood, relationships and behaviours, and suicidality rates are high amongst this population. BPD is one of the most stigmatised conditions in psychiatry today, but can be understood as a modifiable, neurodevelopmental disorder that arises from maladaptive responses to trauma and stress. However, BPD is currently not considered an exclusively post-traumatic phenomenon in the Diagnostic Statistic Manual 5. This project will explore the database of a larger project, with the aim to uncover the relationship between early life trauma and BPD.