Predictors of outcome in a 27-year follow-up of patients with borderline personality disorder.

Sixty-four patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) were followed up for a mean of 27 years. Outcome was assessed using the Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines, Revised (DIB-R), the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), the Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90), and the Social Adjustment Scale (SAS-SR). Subjects were also administered two self-report measures of childhood experience: the Parental Bonding Index (PBI) and the Developmental Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ). DIB-R scores and GAF scores at 15 years were significant predictors of all these measures of long-term outcome. In contrast, reports of parenting quality and of childhood abuse or trauma had no relationship to outcome.