Day hospital treatment for borderline adolescents

Short-term psychiatric hospitalization for acute disturbances in adolescents has little effect on underlying developmental deficits. A day hospital treatment program based on psychoanalytic object relations concepts can provide an alternative to costly long-term inpatient hospital adolescent programs while limiting regressive and destructive behavior. An understanding of the characteristics and dynamics of borderline adolescent patients provided the basis for practical approaches that also were helpful to other patients. A review of the literature on the day treatment of borderline patients precedes a discussion of the diagnosis and dynamics of borderline adolescents. This is followed by a description of the methods utilized in a day hospital program whose goal was to potentiate a successful start of a longer-term psychotherapeutic process that could continue after discharge. Difficulties in prognosis and in designing verifying research are discussed.