Treatment of borderline personality disorder with psychoanalytically oriented partial hospitalization: An 18-month follow-up

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether the substantial g ains made by patients with borderline personality disorder following comple tion of a psychoanalytically oriented partial hospitalization program, in c omparison to patients treated with standard psychiatric care, were maintain ed over an 18-month follow-up period. Method: Forty-four patients who participated in the original study were ass essed every 3 months after completion of the treatment phase. Outcome measu res included frequency of suicide attempts and acts of self-harm, number an d duration of inpatient admissions, service utilization, and self-reported measures of depression, anxiety, general symptom distress, interpersonal fu nctioning, and social adjustment. Results: Patients who completed the partial hospitalization program not onl y maintained their substantial gains but also showed a statistically signif icant continued improvement on most measures in contrast to the patients tr eated with standard psychiatric care, who showed only limited change during the same period. Conclusions: The superiority of psychoanalytically oriented partial hospita lization over standard psychiatric treatment found in a previous randomized , controlled trial was maintained over an 18-month follow-up period. Contin ued improvement in social and interpersonal functioning suggests that longe r-term changes were stimulated.