2018/06/11 by J. Löf, David Clinton, Viktor Kaldo +1 · 34 citations
Psychology · Medicine · #Personality Disorders and Psychopathology #Suicide and Self-Harm Studies #Bipolar Disorder and Treatment #Borderline personality disorder #Alexithymia #Moderation #Psychology #Psychiatry #Clinical psychology #Personality #Suicidal ideation #Poison control #Medicine #Injury prevention
paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s12888-018-1699-6
published in BMC Psychiatry 18(1), 185 (BioMed Central)
openalex publication_date 2018/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
BACKGROUND: Mentalisation-based treatment (MBT) in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has a growing evidence base, but there is a lack of effectiveness and moderator studies. The present study examined the effectiveness of MBT in a naturalistic setting and explored psychiatric and psychological moderators of outcome. METHOD: Borderline and general psychiatric symptoms, suicidality, self-harm, alexithymia and self-image were measured in a group of BPD patients (n = 75) receiving MBT; assessments were made at baseline, and subsequently after 6, 12 and 18 months (when treatment ended). Borderline symptoms were the primary outcome variable. RESULTS: Borderline symptoms improved significantly (d = 0.79, p < .001), as did general psychiatric symptoms, suicidality, self-harm, self-rated alexithymia and self-image. BPD severity or psychological moderators had no effect on outcome. Younger patients improved more on self-harm, although this could be explained by the fact that older patients had considerably lower baseline self-harm. CONCLUSIONS: MBT seems to be an effective treatment in a naturalistic setting for BPD patients. This study is one of the first studies of MBT showing that outcomes related to mentalisation, self-image and self-rated alexithymia improved. Initial symptom severity did not influence results indicating that MBT treatment is well adapted to patients with severe BPD symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was retrospectively registered 25 September 2017 in the ClinicalTrials.gov PRS registry, no. NCT03295838 .