Improvement in borderline personality disorder in relationship to age.
OBJECTIVE
It is commonly believed that some features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) improve as individuals reach their late 30s and 40s. This study examined age-related change in borderline criteria and functional impairment, testing the hypothesis that older age would be associated with relatively more improvement than younger age.


METHODS
A total of 216 male and female participants with BPD were followed prospectively with yearly assessments over 6 years.


RESULTS
Participants showed similar rates of improvement in borderline features regardless of age. A significant age by study year interaction showed functioning in older subjects to reverse direction and begin to decline in the latter part of the follow-up, in contrast to younger subjects who maintained or continued improvement over the 6 years. Despite the decline, functioning for the older subjects was comparable with or slightly better at year 6 than at year 1.


CONCLUSIONS
Improvement in borderline features is not specific to the late 30s and 40s. There may be a reversal of improvement in functioning in some borderline patients in this older-age range.
Tracie Shea
M
M
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University, Providence, RI 02906, USA. m_shea@brown.edu
Edelen
M O
MO
Pinto
A
A
Yen
S
S
Gunderson
J G
JG
Skodol
A E
AE
Markowitz
J
J
Sanislow
C A
CA
Grilo
C M
CM
Ansell
E
E
Daversa
M T
MT
Zanarini
M C
MC
McGlashan
T H
TH
Morey
L C
LC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult