Additional Symptom Areas over Time

This chapter details the course of symptom areas that were not covered in Chapter 6, or were covered in a non-comprehensive manner. These symptom areas are anxiety, shame, dissociation, and 17 specific cognitions (e.g., overvalued ideas, ideas of reference). These symptoms tended to decrease over time, but they also tended to remain significantly more severe or more common among borderline patients than among Axis II comparison subjects. Multivariate predictive models were also found for the severity of anxiety and the severity of shame. Taken together, these symptoms represent areas of suffering that would benefit from more clinical attention and support.