Risk of Major Depression Relapse Higher for People with Personality Disorders

Depression is highly treatable. Even the most severe cases of depression can be effectively treated through therapy and the right medications.

But no matter how effective your depression treatment is, there is always a chance that your depression symptoms will relapse. If you have a personality disorder, such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), these odds are even higher.

A study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that people with personality disorders are 1.5 times more likely than people without personality disorders to relapse with major depression.

Relapse rates for people with a personality disorder were at least 9 percent higher than for people without any personality disorder:

• 63 percent for people without a personality disorder
• 72 percent for people with Borderline Personality Disorder
• 72 percent for people with Schizotypal Personality Disorder
• 76 percent for people with Avoidant Personality Disorder
• 77 percent for people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

The median time to relapse was longer in people without personality disorders than for people with any of the personality disorders.

“These findings suggest that personality disorders might compromise naturalistically delivered treatments and undermine the stability of major depressive disorder remission,” said the study’s authors.

The study also determined that remission rates and the median time to remission were increased in people with a personality disorder. For example, people with Borderline Personality Disorder had a remission rate of 81 percent and a median time to remission of about 55 weeks. That is compared to 91 percent and about 19 weeks for patients without a personality disorder.

If you are suffering from major depression as well as a personality disorder, such as BPD, make sure you get mood disorder treatment and personality disorder treatment simultaneously so that you reduce the risk of relapse for either.