2025/01/28 by Torvi Abel, Moritz Happel, Franca Daerr +3 · 1 voice
Psychology · #Personality Disorders and Psychopathology #Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications #Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy
paper · pdf · doi:10.4081/ripppo.2025.810
openalex publication_date 2025/01/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
This prospective, naturalistic, longitudinal study examined changes in borderline-specific symptoms in a six-month, manual-based transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) inpatient treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in comparison to a waitlist control group. Seventy-four patients with BPD received TFP in a multi-professional inpatient setting, of whom 27 patients represented the waitlist control group. Thirty-one patients completed six months of treatment. Borderline-specific symptoms were measured by means of the Borderline Symptom List (BSL-23) prior to treatment (waitlist control group), at the beginning, after 3 months, and at the end of it. BSL-23 scores decreased significantly from the beginning to the end of the six-month inpatient therapy program with a medium effect size of d=0.54. There was no change in symptoms for the waitlist control group. Our findings suggest that inpatient TFP is effective in terms of the reduction of borderline-specific symptoms. In terms of this, the duration of the treatment seems to be a meaningful factor. Further research will investigate changes in specific psychodynamic aspects as well as in the follow-up measurement.