"The McLean Hospital Study of Adult Development in 2005 reported on the course and outcomes of BPD. Researchers led by Mary Zanarini, Ed.D., one of the world's foremost researchers in BPD, found the following five significant results after years of studying these patients.
They found that the absence of active BPD symptoms after six years of treatment was much more common than had previously been thought. For many years, clinicians thought that this group of patients was a lost cause. However, the McLean study showed that 74% of patients were without active symptoms after six years.
These remissions were generally stable, and the recurrence of BPD once in remission was rare, only about 6%. What this means is that once a person gets better, the chance of the symptoms returning is low, which is great news.
Completed suicides were far rarer than anticipated--about 4% as compared to the 10% in previous outcome studies. Despite this finding, because it is only 1 study, until more studies are completed, most researchers and clinicians still quote the 10% figure. Nevertheless any study showing a reduction in suicide is great news.
A "complex" model of BPD best describes the condition. In this model, some symptoms--suicidality, self-injury, and impulsivity-improve relatively quickly. These symptoms are often the immediate reason for needing costly forms of treatment, such as psychiatric hospitalizations. The symptoms that are closely associated with ongoing psychosocial impairment- such as chronic feelings of intense anger, emptiness, and profound abandonment concerns--are much more difficult to treat.
People with BPD overall continuously improved their life functioning over time. The study groups felt that people with BPD were somewhat belatedly achieving the developmental milestones of young adulthood. This is significant because we found that some imaging and EEG studies have suggested that brains of people with BPD appear to mature more slowly than those without BPD pathology."
Quoted from
"BPD in Adolescence" by Blaise Aguirre, M.D.Also noteworthy is the belief of Dr. Aguirre that early intervention, in adolescents, will shorten the recovery time of 6 years.
