Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:515-518
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Imipramine treatment of borderline children: case reports with a controlled study
TA Petti and A Unis
The authors discuss the borderline syndrome of childhood, review the
pertinent literature, and present three case histories demonstrating the
salient features of the clinical syndrome. Each patient failed to benefit
from intensive hospital treatment until imipramine (5 mg/kg/day) was added
to the treatment regimen. One child was treated in a double-blind,
imipramine-placebo crossover protocol. Substantial improvement with
imipramine was demonstrated in adaptive peer interactions, compliance, and
bizarre behaviors. This strongly supports consideration of imipramine a
part of the intensive inpatient treatment of the borderline syndrome in
children.
