The Use of Person-Centered Language in Medical Literature on Borderline Personality Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Study

The language used in medical literature plays a crucial role in shaping clinical education, establishing professional norms, and influencing public attitudes towards mental health conditions. A notable concern is the prevalence of non-person-centered language, which often categorizes individuals by their diagnoses instead of acknowledging their humanity. This practice can exacerbate the stigma attached to psychiatric conditions, particularly those related to personality disorders. Although professional organizations have issued guidelines advocating the use of person-centered language (PCL) in scholarly research, the extent to which these recommendations are integrated into the medical literature remains unclear. Recent initiatives have sought to investigate the application of PCL in discussions surrounding psychiatric disorders like ADHD. Nevertheless, there exists a significant research gap pertaining to the application of PCL for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in medical literature. To address this deficiency, the present study employs an observational cross-sectional methodology to analyze language use in contemporary publications on BPD. The primary objectives of this research are to evaluate compliance with established PCL guidelines and to identify prevalent language patterns in relation to the metadata of the selected research articles.