Is There a Characteristic Pattern to the Treatment History of Clinic Outpatients with Borderline Personality?

The prior psychiatric histories, dispositions, and treatment plans for a group of patients with borderline personality, evaluated in an outpatient clinic, were compared to those of evaluated patients diagnosed as having neurotic and/or other personality disorders or schizophrenia. Variables that were found to discriminate patients diagnosed as borderline from the other two groups included a history of past hospitalizations and their duration, frequency of prior outpatient treatment, previous use of psychotropic medications, rates of dropout and referral-out of the clinic, and number of treatment sessions received during a 2-year follow-up period. Patients with borderline personality who had the most previous treatment and the most severe symptoms received the least treatment. The histories of extensive previous treatment are consistent with the frequently brief and unsatisfactory nature of the index clinic contacts.