Symptomatic Remissions and Recurrences of the Borderline Diagnosis

Many clinicians are reluctant to treat or actively avoid treating patients with BPD. This is so because of the interpersonal difficulties that tend to arise during such a treatment, and is partly due to the idea that BPD is a chronic disorder. This chapter, however, describes the reason for much of the new optimism about the borderline diagnosis. After 16 years of prospective follow-up, it was found that 99% of borderline patients achieved a two-year remission of their BPD, and 78% achieved an eight-year remission of this disorder. Additionally, recurrences of BPD were relatively infrequent, suggesting that remissions of this disorder were stable in nature. These findings suggest that BPD is a “good prognosis” diagnosis and not the chronic condition that many clinicians still believe.