Pharmacotherapy of hospitalized personality disorder patients: Four decades of clinical experience

Chart review of patients on the General Research Unit at the New York State Psychiatric Institute has previously been used to study the course of personality disorder. In this study we reviewed charts of patients treated on this unit between 1950 and 1990, focusing pharmacotherapeutic issues. Although changes in theoretical trend have influenced variables such as patient diagnosis, a series patients with personality disorder and similar symptom dimensions have been treated with medication. Antidepressants and neuroleptics were most widely prescribed, and rates of response to treatment were high.