Severe personality disorder: in, out, what's it all about?

Until relatively recently the treatment of choice for people with severe personality disorders was admission for long-term treatment in psychotherapy hospitals or therapeutic communities. However, most of these institutions have closed down and the gap has been filled by partial hospitalization and outpatient, community-based approaches. It is uncertain how these two models compare though so researchers in London contrasted a community-based programme provided by the Cassel Hospital in London with inpatient treatment at the same facility. Their study found that people in the community-based programme improved to a significantly greater degree and had a lower dropout rate than people being treated on an inpatient basis.

Chiesa, Marco, Fonagy, Peter and Gordon, John - Community-based psychodynamic treatment program for severe personality disorders: clinical description and naturalistic evaluation Journal of Psychiatric Practice January 2009, 15(1), 12-24