Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Clin. Psychol. Psychother. 14, 198–210 (2007) Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/cpp.530 Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Who Can Benefit from Time- Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy? A Study of Psychiatric Outpatients with Personality Disorders Bo Vinnars, 1 * Jacques P. Barber, 3 Kristina Norén, 1 Barbro Thormählen, 1,2 Robert Gallop, 4 Annika Lindgren 1 and Robert M. Weinryb 1 1 Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Psychotherapy Section, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 2 Department of Neurotec, Division of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA 4 Department of Statistics, West Chester University, West Chester, Philadelphia, PA, USA Introduction: This study examined whether measures of Personality Disorder (PD) from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder IV, psychodynamic character, psychological mindedness, interpersonal patterns and personality traits predicted treatment outcome for PD patients. Method: Consecutive PD patients were ran- domly assigned to manualized time-limited supportive-expressive psychotherapy (SEP; n = 76) or non-manualized open-ended commu- nity delivered psychodynamic treatment (CDPT; n = 80). Significant predictors were tested together in order to examine whether they mod- erated or predicted the reduction of psychiatric symptoms (Symptom Check List-90). Results: In the entire sample, patients with more severe levels of PD disorderness (number of positive PD criteria) had slower rates of improvement, but patients with more severe levels of vindic- tiveness (assessed by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems [IIP]) had higher rates of improvement. High levels of IIP dominance were significantly related to higher rate of improvement in the CDPT treat- ment compared with SEP. Conclusion: Due to the fact that more severe PD patients had slower rates of improvement, longer treatment may be needed for this population. Specific interpersonal problems may impact whether patients should receive manualized or non-manual- ized treatment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. *Correspondence to: Bo Vinnars, Department of Psychiatry, Psykiatriska mott/Centrumhuset, Fittjavägen 3-9, 145 51 Norsborg, Sweden. E-mail: bo.vinnars@sll.se Part of the article was presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) in Santa Barbara, CA, USA, in 2002. INTRODUCTION Demands for time-limited and manualized evi- dence-based psychotherapy (EBP) are increasing as a means to use limited resources more effectively and to increase the likelihood that patients will receive reasonable and effective treatment (Westen, Novotny, & Thompson-Brenner, 2004). EBP guide- lines usually target specific, relatively homoge- neous axis 1 psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical