The 24-Year Course of Symptomatic Disorders in Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder and...

Objectives: Our first objective was to compare the prevalence of symptomatic disorders (formerly Axis I disorders) over 24 years of prospective follow-up among patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and other personality disordered comparison subjects as well as recovered vs nonrecovered borderline patients. Our second objective was to assess the relationship between the absence of 5 major classes of symptomatic disorders over time and the likelihood of concurrent recovery among borderline patients.

Methods: The McLean Study of Adult Development (MSAD) is a naturalistic prospective follow-up study of 362 inpatients assessed at 12 contiguous 2-year follow-up waves. Symptomatic disorders were assessed at each follow-up using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Axis I Disorders. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess all outcomes. Data were collected from June 1992 to December 2018.

Results: Patients with BPD had significantly higher rates of all 5 types of disorders studied than comparison subjects. However, the prevalence of these disorders declined significantly over time at similar rates for both study groups. This finding was similar for recovered and nonrecovered borderline patients. When the absence of these types of comorbid disorders was used to predict recovery status, substance use disorders were a substantially stronger predictor of recovery than the other 4 classes of disorders (relative risk ratio: 2.53, P < .001).

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that symptomatic disorders co occur less commonly with BPD over time, particularly for recovered borderline patients. They also suggest that the absence of substance use disorders is the strongest predictor of achieving recovery from BPD.