Background
overload and distress, guilt, MS-BPD, Borderline personality disorder, personality disorders, adversity, pain, mental disorder, BPD
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder that usually has its onset during adolescence and early adulthood (The families and friends (henceforth ‘carers’) of people with BPD features also report adversity in terms of elevated burden (or negative appraisal of the experiences of caregiving), distress, grief, disempowerment and mental ill health (Recent systematic reviews have concluded that there is preliminary support for the effectiveness of interventions for carers of individuals with personality disorders, with evidence for reducing burden, emotional burnout, pain, grief, guilt, overload and distress, and for improving relationship skills and family climate (To the authors’ knowledge, only three published interventions have been designed specifically for the carers of young people and implemented within an early intervention framework: Making Sense of BPD (MS-BPD) (While these findings are promising, a rigorous evaluation of carer interventions using an RCT design with an active comparison group is warranted. Evaluations to date have relied on carers self-referring in response to public advertising (e.g. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the in-person MS-BPD group, delivered in conjunction with an Online BPD psychoeducation programme (MS-BPD + Online), compared with the Online programme alone, in improving carer outcomes. It was hypothesised that MS-BPD + Online would be associated with superior results at the 7-week endpoint.