Relatives' experiences of brief admission in borderline personality disorder and self-harming behaviour.

The study included 12 relatives from one Swedish region, so the themes may not apply to other settings, countries or service models. Brief admission is organised differently in different places, so transferability is limited. Most interviews were conducted by phone, so body language and emotional reactions were not captured. Only four participants were men, and relatives were identified through patients, so other family perspectives may be missing. No measurements of anxiety, self-harm, admissions, quality of life or relatives' burden were made, so the study cannot show whether brief admission works. The analysis relies on conventional content analysis and the authors' categorisation, so important parts of what relatives said could have been missed.

The work was supported by the Department of Psychiatry, Ryhov County Hospital, Jönköping. The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Do not read this as proof that brief admission prevents self-harm or reduces admissions. It is a qualitative study of relatives' experiences, not a trial of outcomes.