Drug Treatment of Other Psychiatric Conditions

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is common in psychiatric settings, affecting 20% of community psychiatric patients. Common co‐morbid conditions affecting patients with BPD include affective disorders anxiety spectrum disorders, eating disorders, and drug and alcohol misuse, and the lifetime risk of having at least one co‐morbid mental disorder approaches 100%. Although classified as a personality disorder, several aspects of BPD have been assumed to be responsive to drug treatment. Drug treatments are often used during periods of crisis when symptoms can be severe, distressing and potentially life‐threatening. Psychiatric conditions often coexist with eating disorders, and this may in part explain the benefit sometimes seen with medication. Drugs have limited activity in anorexia nervosa, and none is currently licensed for this condition. Delirium is a common neuropsychiatric condition that presents in medical and surgical settings and is known by various names including organic brain syndrome, intensive care psychosis and acute confusional state.