The BRIDGE Project: A Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial of Brief, Intensive Assessment and Integrated Formulation for Young People (Age 14-24) Early in the Course of Borderline Personality Disorder

This project is the first step in testing a new intervention programme, called BRIDGE (Brief, Intensive Assessment and Integrated Formulation), for young people early in the course of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). The BRIDGE Project will help us find out whether we can do a much bigger study in the future that will tell us whether BRIDGE works well. BPD is characterised by long standing difficulty in managing emotional responses, personal relationships, impulse control and self-image. Research shows that individuals with BPD may experience discrimination and resulting stigmatisation by both the public and health care professionals. Many adolescents and young people with complex needs and high suicide risk are left under-diagnosed and untreated. As a result, young people with BPD are frequently not in education or training and experience challenging relationships with friends and families. The overall aim of the study is to assess the possibility of providing a treatment programme for young people with BPD symptoms in the general population, who may or may not be accessing any mental health services. First, we need to see whether young people are comfortable with random allocation to BRIDGE (AND service as usual) or Service-as-usual (ALONE) (a bit like tossing a coin). Second, we need to find out whether enough young people want to be involved. Third, whether we can find out the information we need about them and can follow up enough young people later. The proposed study will try to find these things out, so that we can design a future, bigger, study to find out whether BRIDGE is good value for young people with BPD.