Preventive psychiatric admission for patients with borderline personality disorder: a pilot study

The purpose of this study was to establish the preliminary effects of preventive psychiatric admission of patients with severe borderline personality disorder (BPD) on the rate of agreement over treatment, patient service use, and patient views on the intervention.

A retrospective pre-post test design with quantitative measures and qualitative interviews was used.

Agreement over treatment increased substantially and significantly, and services use decreased substantially, yet not significantly. Patients were highly content with the intervention.

Preliminary results indicate that preventive admissions may be easy to use and cost effective with severe BPD patients in mainstream psychiatric services, but more research into the intervention is needed.