Yale NEA-BPD Conference: Manage Related Cognitive Challenges

Conference presenters from the 9th Annual Yale NEA-BPD Conference answer audience questions.

Agenda for Today Improving accessibility to DBT individual therapy Quick Step Assessment Improving accessibility to DBT skills Skills System overview Description of each skill

Bessel van der Kolk, MD, delivers the lecture "Childhood Trauma, Affect Regulation, and Borderline Personality Disorder" as part of the 9th Annual Yale NEA-BPD Conference.

Annita Sawyer, Ph.D., “Is Diagnosis Destiny?” Presented at the 9th Annual Yale NEA-BPD Conference, May 10, 2013, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. Annita Sawyer is a psychologist in practice for over thirty years and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry of the Yale School of Medicine. Her essays have won prizes and been included among "Notables in the Best American Essays" series. Dr. Sawyer’s book, "Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass: A Psychologist's Memoir" was selected by Lee Gutkind for the Santa Fe Writers Project 2013 nonfiction grand prize and was published in 2015. For further information see

Neuropsychological Deficits: BPD is associated with a range of cognitive deficits, with no two individuals necessarily showing the same types of difficulties. The most frequently affected neuropsychological domains include memory, response inhibition and planning. These deficits are subserved by many of the same brain regions that are responsible for regulating emotions. Implications for Treatment: Worse executive function and visual memory may be associated with a greater likelihood of dropout from treatment (Fertuck et al., 2012). Individualized neuropsychological assessments may assist substantially with treatment planning, which could avoid obstacles patients may later encounter in effectively engaging with treatments.

Objectives: What is BPD? Challenges in Diagnosis What are the cognitive perceptual disturbances in BPD? Challenges in treatment and good news

The conference Co-directors welcome and orient to this year's conference including issues of stigma, NEA-BPD offerings, and this year's conference theme: Managing Related Cognitive Challenges: Dissociation, Psychosis, and Intellectual Impairments.