Family therapy in personality disorders

Abstract

Mental illness affects not only the patient but also their families, it can difficult interpersonal communication, can cause additional pathologies inside the family and all this can worsen the evolution of the disorder. Psychoeducational therapies with families improve the prognosis of the disease and furthermore prevent the occurrence of other disorders in relatives. The most important elements of these therapies are: psychoeducation of the disorder, re establishment of a healthy relationship between patient and family, establishment of limits, improvement of family communication, and the establishment of relations with extensive social network to avoid the isolation both family and patient. Mixed therapeutic interventions, individual and family, have shown to be very useful in personality disorders, especially in borderline personality disorder.