Interpersonal outcome of cognitive behavioral treatment for chronically suicidal borderline patients.
OBJECTIVE
This study reports the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral outpatient treatment on interpersonal outcome variables for patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.


METHODS
In a 1-year clinical trial, 26 female patients with borderline personality disorder were randomly assigned to either dialectical behavior therapy or a treatment-as-usual comparison condition. All subjects met criteria of DSM-III-R and Diagnostic Interview for Borderline Patients for borderline personality disorder and were chronically suicidal.


RESULTS
In both the intent-to-treat and treatment completion groups, dialectical behavior therapy subjects had significantly better scores on measures of anger, interviewer-rated global social adjustment, and the Global Assessment Scale and tended to rate themselves better on overall social adjustment than treatment-as-usual subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that dialectical behavior therapy is a promising psychosocial intervention for improving interpersonal functioning among severely dysfunctional patients with borderline personality disorder.
Linehan
M M
MM
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195.
Tutek
D A
DA
Heard
H L
HL
Armstrong
H E
HE
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011336:Probability; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome