PROSPECTIVE FOLLOW-UP-STUDY OF BORDERLINE PERSONALITY-DISORDER - PROGNOSIS, PREDICTION OF OUTCOME, AND AXIS-II COMORBIDITY

Objective: To examine the rate of persistence of borderline personalit y disorder (BPD), the existence of concomitant personality disorders o n follow-up, and the predictors of outcome in patients who met criteri a for BPD compared with patients with borderline features who failed t o meet all of the criteria. Method: This prospective cohort study reas sessed subjects for BPD diagnosis and cooccurring personality patholog y at 7 years follow-up. Initial measures of borderline and comorbid pe rsonality psychopathology were used to predict levels of borderline or other personality disorder psychopathology at follow-up. Results: Of the 57 subjects who initially met the criteria for BPD, 30 (52.6%) wer e found to have remitted BPD, and 27 (47.4%) It ere characterized as h aving persistent BPD. The remitted group met significantly fewer comor bid personality disorder diagnoses than the persistent group (mean = 0 .8, mean = 3.5 respectively, P < 0.05). Results also indicated that th e initial level of borderline psychopathology was predictive of border line psychopathology at follow-up, which explained 17% of the variance . Conclusions: This prospective follow-up study found that almost 50% of former inpatients with BPD continue to test positive for BPD at 7 y ears follow-up, and these persistent BPD patients also had significant ly more comorbid personality psychopathology. Borderline psychopatholo gy at follow-up was primarily predicted by the level of borderline psy chopathology recorded at the initial assessment.