PERSONALITY PATHOLOGY AND TIME TO REMISSION IN DEPRESSED OUTPATIENTS TREATED WITH INTERPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

The present study investigates the relationship between clinical featu res and time to remission in a population of 76 depressed outpatients treated with interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). Patients meeting full criteria for borderline personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder were excluded from the study; however, patients with other p ersonality disorder diagnoses were included, as were those with border line or antisocial features. The only significant predictor of time to remission was the degree of personality pathology. Survival analysis revealed a significant relationship between the number of SIDP-R perso nality disorder diagnoses and time to remission (p < .01). Patients we re also rated as ''high'' versus ''low'' personality disturbance based on the number of SIDP-R personality traits they exhibited. ''High-dis turbance'' patients had a median time to stable remission of 28.7 week s, whereas those classified as ''low disturbance'' had a median time t o remission of 19.4 weeks (p < .03). We conclude that depressed patien ts with greater concurrent personality pathology are likely to either respond more slowly to Interpersonal psychotherapy or not respond at a ll.