Risk of relapse within 6 months associated with borderline personality disorder in major depressed individuals treated with electroconvulsive therapy

Abstract

Given the limited data in the literature, the aim of this study was to investigate the risk of relapse within 6 months associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in major depressed individuals treated with electroconvulsive therapy. Demographic and clinical data from 109 major depressed individuals with partial or complete response to electroconvulsive therapy recruited from the database of the Psychiatry Department of Erasme Hospital were analysed. Cox regression analyses were used to determine the risk of relapse within 6 months associated with BPD in major depressed individuals treated with electroconvulsive therapy. Relapses within 6 months were frequent (37.6%) in our sample of major depressed individuals treated with electroconvulsive therapy. After adjusting for major confounding factors, multivariate Cox regression analyses demonstrated that BPD was a risk factor for relapse within 6 months in major depressed individuals treated with electroconvulsive therapy. In our study, we demonstrated that BPD is associated with higher risk of relapse within 6 months in major depressed individuals treated with electroconvulsive therapy, which seems to justify a more systematic screening for BPD in order to allow the implementation of more effective prevention strategies for relapse within 6 months in this particular subpopulation.