Negative attitudes towards borderline personality disorder patients in Spanish mental health and primary care services: mHealth, a possible solution?

The purpose of this project was to study negative attitudes exhibited by mental health professionals toward patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) as a function of their work area (general health vs. mental health), profession, the quantity of patients with BPD they have treated over the past year, their number of years of experience in mental health, and their gender. The study used a sample of 310 professionals. We also explored how the professionals' interest in using an innovative technological application (Medtep DBT) interacted with some of these variables, as well as the potential of the application to help change negative attitudes. Significant differences in attitude were found based on work area, profession, quantity of patients with BPD treated over the past and gender. Furthermore, profession, number of patients and years of experience in mental health determined significant differences in the professionals' degree of interest in using Medtep DBT. Moreover, those with higher negative attitudes showed less interest in the application and a lesser willingness to try it. These results highlight the need to keep investigating how to improve the attitudes of healthcare professionals, especially nursing staff and general practitioner, since they appear to be more susceptible to the development of negative attitudes. As a conclusion, we infer that the lack of empathy towards patients with BPD, the difficulties in their treatment and the years of experience in mental health all act as barriers to the implementation of the application.