Borderline Personality Disorder: Comparison of Two Treatment Modalities.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two treatment modalities for patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). A total of 100 psychiatric patients diagnosed with BPD participated in this study. Among them, 50 patients were outpatients who attended the Reason and Emotion (RIO) program, and the remaining 50 were inpatients who were treated on psychotherapeutic ward at the same hospital. All the participants filled out the following battery of tests when entering the program/psychotherapy ward and 3 months later: Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (2nd ed), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, The COPE Inventory, and the WHOQOL-BREF scale. The results showed significant positive effects of both treatment modalities on patients' self-esteem, different domains of self-concept, impulsivity, and different domains of subjective quality of life. No significant changes were observed in terms of coping strategies. Thus, the results speak in favor of the outpatient RIO program, which is more cost-effective than the inpatient ward treatment.

Case Series: Managing Severe Mental Illness in Disaster Situation: the Croatian Experience After 2020 Earthquake.

On the 29th of December 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Petrinja in the Croatian Sisak-Moslavina County experienced a strong earthquake, resulting in a severe disruption in mental health service delivery. Specialized care community mental health teams were introduced days within the event with the aim to bridge the gap in psychiatric care that was severely disturbed in the region affected by the earthquake. Through a case series of patients with SMI, we describe how care was quickly deployed and delivered after a natural disaster and during a pandemic resulting in their functional recovery. Community mental health teams have the potential to provide feasible, comprehensive, and accessible mental health services, and their continued implementation in the post-disaster period in Croatia could be beneficial for care management of people with severe mental illness.