Predictors of Effects in Brief Psychiatric Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder

If evidence points to the equal efficacy of all bona fide treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD) in general, it may not necessarily be true for a specific individual, nor do such general conclusions help in the triage of clients in clinical services. We investigated potential therapy outcome predictors for participants with a BPD diagnosis (N = 99). They were assessed on scales including the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-64, and the Borderline Symptom List. Our analyses revealed that individuals with low levels of symptom distress at intake had the smallest change in total OQ-45 score over the course of brief treatment, while the individuals with high levels of symptom distress had a mean large change in total score (-23). We observed that individuals with high symptom loads AND low levels of interpersonal problems at intake seemed to have the best progress.