Results of psychodynamically oriented trauma-focused inpatient treatment for women with complex posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Abstract

In a naturalistic outcome study, the authors evaluated the results of a specific psychodynamically oriented trauma-focused inpatient treatment for women with complex posttraumatic stress disorder and concomitant borderline personality disorder, self-mutilating behavior, and depression. At admission, the frequency of self-mutilating behavior and the amount of inpatient treatment (an average of 68 days annually) of the sample was high, characterizing this patient group as "previously therapy resistant." Treatment outcome was assessed both at the end of treatment and in a 1-year follow-up. In comparison with a treatment-as-usual control group, the treatment program brought about significant and stable improvements both in trauma-specific symptoms (e.g. dissociation, intrusion, avoidance) and in general psychiatric symptoms (e.g., general symptom distress, frequency of self-mutilating behavior, number of hospitalizations). The frequency of inpatient treatments (hospitalizations) decreased dramatically (< 10 days annually; effect size: d = 2.88).