[Effect of personality disorders on course and treatment outcome of behaviour therapy in an outpatient sample].

The aim of the study was to examine if personality disorders (PD) or subclinical personality disorders (SPD) have negative impact on outcome and course of psychotherapies. The course of 360 patients (pt) with comorbid Axis II diagnoses treated at an outpatient unit were examined at 4 different time points in psychotherapy with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R). We found a significant decrease of symptoms over the time for all groups but no significant interaction between time and group. Pt with PD showed higher scores on BDI and SCL-90-R at all time points and pt with SPD at the beginning of the therapy than pt without SPD/PD. The pre-post analysis for the BDI and the SCL-90-R showed for all groups middle to high effect sizes (0,62<d<1,45). These results are encouraging for clinicians as they imply that pt with PD and SPD start with higher scores but decrease in the same way, which means that they benefit from behaviour therapy equally. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.