We sought to determine attitudes toward patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) among mental health clinicians at nine academic centers in the United States.

A self-report questionnaire was distributed to 706 mental health clinicians, including psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, social workers, nurses, and psychologists.

The study showed that most clinicians consider BPD a valid diagnosis, although nearly half reported that they preferred to avoid these patients. The clinician's occupational subgroup was significantly related to attitude. Staff nurses had the lowest self-ratings on overall caring attitudes, while social workers had the highest. Social workers and psychiatrists had the highest ratings on treatment optimism. Social workers and psychologists were most optimistic about psychotherapy effectiveness, while psychiatrists were most optimistic about medication effectiveness. Staff nurses had the lowest self-ratings on empathy toward patients with BPD and treatment optimism.

Negative attitudes persist among clinicians toward BPD, but differ among occupational subgroups. Overall, caring attitudes, empathy, and treatment optimism were all higher among care providers who had cared for a greater number of BPD patients in the past 12 months.

These findings hold important implications for clinician education and coordination of care for patients with BPD.

Self-harm is a direct, socially unacceptable,repetitive behavior that causes minor to moderate physical injury without suicidal intent. It is also a significant and growing concern among prison inmates, although it has been rarely studied. In the present study, we aimed to investigate demographic, psychosocial, and clinical variables associated to this critical bahaviour in a high risk sample of 1,555 male prisoners.

Prisoners were interviewed about their history of self-mutilation, psychiatric history,and forensic history. The prisoners completed the Barratt Impulsivity Scale, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.

Eighteen percent of prisoners had a history of self-harm. They more frequently reported childhood traumas, were more likely to be unmarried, previously imprisoned, tested positive for substance abuse, had a history of suicide attempt, and more likely showed violent tendencies.

Self-harm among prisoners is common, being found in almost 20% of the subjects in our sample. Self-mutilation among prisoners appears to be multi-factorial with developmental, socio-demographic, psychiatric, and personality determinants.

Self-harm is associated with critical behaviors such as violence, substance abuse and suicide attempts, which represent major critical problems in contention environments.