title: Prediction of time-to-attainment of recovery for borderline patients followed prospectively for 16 years.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the most clinically relevant baseline predictors of time-to-recovery from borderline personality disorder.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred and ninety in-patients meeting rigorous criteria for borderline personality disorder were assessed during their index admission using a series of semistructured interviews and self-report measures. Recovery status, which was defined as concurrent symptomatic remission and good social and full-time vocational functioning, was reassessed at eight contiguous 2-year time periods. Survival analytic methods (Cox regression), which controlled for overall baseline severity, were used to estimate hazard ratios and their confidence intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All told, 60% of the borderline patients studied achieved a 2-year recovery. In bivariate analyses, seventeen variables were found to be significant predictors of earlier time-to-recovery. Six of these predictors remained significant in multivariate analyses: no prior psychiatric hospitalizations, higher IQ, good full-time vocational record in 2 years prior to index admission, absence of an anxious cluster personality disorder, high extraversion, and high agreeableness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, the results of this study suggest that prediction of time-to-recovery for borderline patients is multifactorial in nature, involving factors related to lack of chronicity, competence, and more adaptive aspects of temperament.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Study for Adult Development, McLean Hospital and the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Zanarini
authors.forename: F R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Frankenburg
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Wedig
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Conkey
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Fitzmaurice
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012074:Remission Induction; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: outcome; personality disorder; temperament