Psychotropic medication use in hospitalized patients with borderline personality disorder.

Introduction: Use of medications to treat symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is controversial. The purpose of this study was to describe psychotropic medication use in hospitalized patients with BPD and compare with a control group.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted on hospitalized patients aged 18-65 years having a diagnosis of BPD and compared them with a control group of patients with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) without a personality disorder. Patients were excluded from the BPD group if other personality disorders were recorded. Charts were reviewed for demographics and psychotropic medication usage both prior to admission and at discharge.

Results: This study included 165 patients (85 in BPD; 80 in MDD). Prior to admission and upon discharge, patients in the BPD group were prescribed significantly more psychotropic medications than patients with MDD (3.21 vs 2.10;  < .001 and 2.87 vs 2.35;  < .05, respectively). Patients in the BPD group were significantly more likely to be prescribed antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and miscellaneous agents compared with the MDD group. On admission, significantly more BPD patients were prescribed multiple sedative agents (37.6% vs 21.3%;  < .05), but because of the discontinuation of sedative agents, this difference was nonsignificant upon discharge.

Discussion: This study found increased medication utilization among patients with BPD. Polypharmacy may increase the risk of side effects, drug interactions, and drug toxicity for BPD patients. Clinicians need to carefully evaluate the efficacy and risk of medications prescribed in patients with BPD.