Journal
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Volume 22, Issue 6, Pages 559-569Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/cpp.1915
Keywords
Borderline Personality Disorder; Identity Diffusion; Inpatient Treatment; Disorder-Specific Treatment; Transference-Focused Psychotherapy
Categories
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) [32003B-108462]
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Objectives: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show various psychopathological symptoms and suffer especially from disturbance in their identity. The purpose of the study was to investigate changes-particularly in affective BPD symptoms and identity diffusion-during a structured, disorder-specific inpatient treatment (DST) that combined a psychodynamic transference-focused psychotherapy approach with modules of dialectical behavioural skills training. Method: In a prospective, two-group comparison trial, 44 patients with BPD were assessed with questionnaires addressing identity diffusion and state, as well as trait affective psychopathology, before and after 12 weeks of inpatient treatment. Thirty-two patients received DST, whereas 12 patients were given inpatient treatment-as-usual (TAU). The patients were allocated in a non-random procedure for two groups, in order of admission and availability of treatment options in the DST unit. Results: In the pre-post-comparison, the DST group showed a significant decrease in identity diffusion (p<0.001) and improvements in instability of the image of self and others (p<0.008), as well as in pathological (trait and state) symptoms. However, there was no significant improvement in the TAU group. Conclusions: After a 12-week inpatient treatment, the findings indicate significant improvements in the DST group in typical affective borderline symptomatology and in the personality structure feature of identity diffusion. This highlights the significance of a short-term specific inpatient therapy for BPD.
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