title: Day treatment of patients with personality disorders: experiences from a Norwegian treatment research network.
abstract: This study sought to investigate the following research questions: Are time-limited day treatment programs for patients with personality disorder (PD) effective outside resourceful university settings, and what are the overall treatment results when the program is implemented on a larger scale? Do all categories and subtypes of PDs respond favorably to such treatment? How intensive should such day treatment programs be? All patients (n = 1,244) were consecutively admitted to eight different treatment programs in the Norwegian Network of Psychotherapeutic Day Hospitals from 1993 to 2000. Altogether, 1,010 patients were diagnosed with PD. Avoidant, borderline, not otherwise specified (NOS), and paranoid PD were the most common conditions. SCID-II and MINI were used as diagnostic instruments. Outcome measures included GAF Global Assessment of Functioning, (GAF; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), SCL-90R, CIP, Quality of Life, work functioning and parasuicidal behavior, measured at admittance, discharge and 1-year follow up. The attrition rate was 24%. The number of dropouts did not improve over time. As a group, completers with PD improved significantly on all outcome variables from admittance to discharge and improvement was maintained or increased at follow up. Treatment results were best for borderline PD, cluster C patients, PD NOS and No PD, and poorer for cluster A patients. Units with a high treatment dosage did not experience better outcomes than those with a low treatment dosage (10 hours per week). Results from the University unit were not better than those from units at local hospitals or mental health centers.
authors.affiliation: Department for Personality Psychiatry, Psychiatric Division, Ullevål University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. sigmund.karterud@psykiatri.uio.no
authors.forename: Sigmund
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karterud
authors.forename: Geir
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bjordal
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brabrand
authors.forename: Svein
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Friis
authors.forename: Oyvind
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Haaseth
authors.forename: Grete
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Haavaldsen
authors.forename: Torill
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Irion
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Leirvåg
authors.forename: Elin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tørum
authors.forename: Oyvind
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Urnes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D010260:Paranoid Personality Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome