Mechanisms of Change in Brief Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder

University of Lausanne Hospitals80 enrolled

Overview

The present two-arm randomized controlled study aims at testing the effects (i.e., symptom reduction) and the underlying mechanisms of change associated with a brief psychiatric treatment (10 sessions over 4 months), compared with treatment as usual. Participants undergo assessments at four points (intake, 2 months, discharge and 12 month follow-up). In addition to symptom measures, all individuals undergo a two-step assessment for the potential mechanisms of change (i.e., emotion and socio-cognitive processing): a) behavioural and b) neurofunctional. We hypothesize that change in the mechanisms explains the treatment effects. The present study uses an innovative treatment of BPD and at the same time a sophisticated assessment procedure to demonstrate the critical role of psychobiological change in emotion and sociocognitive processing in brief treatments. It will help increase the effectiveness of initial treatment phase for BPD and help diminish the societal burden of disease related with BPD. This study is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Borderline Personality Disorder

Interventions

specific interventions as defined by Gunderson and Links (2014)

treatment as usualBEHAVIORAL

non-specific intervention

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 35 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Borderline Personality Disorder * age between 18 and 35 Exclusion Criteria: * non-mastery in French * neurological disorders * schizophrenia (according to DSM-5)

Locations (1)

Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne

Lausanne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland

RECRUITING

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

ZAN-BPD (Zanarini Borderline Personality Disorder Scale; Zanarini, 2003)

measures borderline symptomatology from an dimensional perspective, ranges between 0 and 36 (36 being the most symptomatic), global score (sum of all 9 items coded between 0 and 4) used.

Time frame: 4 months

Secondary Outcomes

OQ-45 (Outcome Questionnaire-45.2, Lambert et al., 2004)

measures the level of problems (distress, social and interpersonal) on a scale ranging from 0 to 180 (45 items coded between 0 and 4, 4 being the most symptomatic). A total sum score will be used

Time frame: 4 months

BSL-23 (Borderline Symptom List, Short Version; Bohus et al., 2009)

measures the intensity of borderline symptoms using a mean score of the 23 items ranging between 0 and 4 (4 being the most symptomatic), the mean score will be used.

Time frame: 4 months

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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