Staff attitudes towards individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder: Can formulation reverse the stigma? An experimental, vignette-based study

Staff members working in mental health settings may experience stigmatising attitudes towards individuals with a personality disorder diagnosis. Little is known about how such attitudes may be modified or improved. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of a written psychological formulation on attitudes towards an individual with a diagnosis of personality disorder. The current study had an experimental, vignette-based, between-subjects design and utilised online survey approach. Multidisciplinary staff members (n=141) from two large mental health trusts in the East of England took part in the study being randomly assigned to either the formulation or Non-formulation condition. Both groups read a short extract about the same fictitious patient. Participants in the formulation condition also read a psychological formulation regarding the patient’s presenting difficulties. Attitudes and causal attributions were compared between the two groups. The results of the study suggest that the addition of a psychological formulation, at least one structured along the lines of the 5-P’s framework, did not significantly alter participants’ attitudes towards the individual within the vignette in most domains measured. One domain of the Causal Attributions measure (‘Stability’) showed a change in the direction of increased stigma.