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Because of their stormy presentations and interactions, patients with borderline personality disorder are difficult to treat successfully. In a prospective, naturalistic study, investigators at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts prospectively followed 290 inpatients with borderline personality disorder (average age, 27) for 6 years and analyzed remission and recurrence rates and the course of 24 subsyndromal symptoms. Patients with concurrent organic, schizophrenic, schizoaffective, or bipolar I diagnoses were excluded.
After discharge, most patients continued various treatments for variable periods (e.g., 75% of patients had some outpatient therapy, and 71% received daily medications). Although many subsyndromal features remained, remission (…