Evaluation of intensive inpatient treatment of patients with severe personality disorders

The purpose of this study was to determine whether severe personality disorders improve or deteriorate with intensive inpatient treatment.

Overall 216 patients diagnosed as having personality disorders by DSM-III-R criteria were prospectively monitored at two private psychiatric hospitals from admission through discharge to one-year follow-up.

Substantial positive change in the sample was recorded at discharge, and the improvements held up at one-year follow-up. The proportion of patients with scores of 50 or more on the Global Assessment Scale was 3.7 percent at the time of admission. By discharge the proportion had increased to 55.1 percent, and by one-year follow-up it had risen to 66.3 percent.

These results suggest that patients with severe personality disorders benefit from intensive inpatient treatment. We found no evidence that hospitalization of such patients is associated with regression or deterioration of function.