AS14-01 - Comparative Efficacy of Evidence Based Psychotherapies in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Abstract

Psychotherapy is regarded the first-line treatment of Borderline-Personality Disorder (BPD). This talk will summarize what is currently known from high-quality trials about the effects of different disorder-specific psychotherapies which have been developed to meet special needs of BPD patients. In total, 28 randomized-controlled studies covering 1804 study investigated both long-term treatments (≥ 6 months, up to 36 months) and short-term interventions (< 6 months). Among long-term treatments, the findings suggest benefits on core BPD pathology from dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), mentalisation-based treatment (MBT), transference-focused therapy (TFP), schema-focused group therapy (SFT), and interpersonal psychotherapy adapted for BPD (IPT-BPD). Furthermore, results for BPD patients with comorbid conditions will be presented. Among short-term interventions, the findings suggest benefits for DBT-skills group training only, the Systems training for emotional predictability and problem solving for borderline personality disorder (STEPPS), an emotion-regulation group (ERG) based on acceptance and commitment therapy and DBT, manual-assisted cognitive therapy (MACT) as well as a psychoeducational workshop (PE). Although short-term interventions show encouraging results, it remains unclear whether treatment-naive people can profit or that a certain level of therapeutic experience is required, and whether the effects are stable over time. In total, there is evidence that disorder-specific psychotherapies are effective in treating BPD. However, one has to keep in mind that none of the treatments has a very robust evidence base, and that there are some concerns regarding the quality of evidence.