Impulsivity and self-damaging behaviour in severe personality disorder: The impact of democratic therapeutic community treatment

Abstract

Impulsivity is a defining characteristic of borderline and antisocial personality disorders (PD) and may contribute to the difficulty of providing successful treatment for this client group. Comparisons were made within and between groups of patients admitted (n = 75) and not admitted ('treatment-as-usual': n = 60) to a residential democratic therapeutic community (DTC) for treatment of personality disorder Assessment of a range of impulsive feelings and behaviours was made at referral and one-year follow-up. Significant reductions were found in the treated group for both total impulsive feelings and total actions. Highly significant differences were also found between change scores for the admitted and treatment-as-usual groups for both impulses and behaviours. Our results indicate that impulsive feelings and behaviours in personality disorder are amenable to TC treatment. © The Authors.