Cognitive Therapy Versus Supportive Therapy in Borderline Personality Disorder

Cognitive Therapy Versus Supportive Therapy in Borderline Personality Disorder

This is a randomised trial comparing cognitive therapy and supportive therapy administered along one year in borderline personality disorder. The follow-up is one year after treatments end.

The therapists were the same in the two groups. Patients received one session a week during six months and one session every two weeks during the next six months

• Cognitive Therapy
• Structured session
• Conceptualization of the case with the patient
• Cognitive methods
• Guided discovery of the schemas
• Work on life-scenarios
• From scenarios to schemas
• Empathic confrontation to the schemas
• Building new schemas (Core belief work-sheet)
• Affective methods: role playing
• Interpersonal methods: counter transference issues
• Behavioral experiment
• Problem solving
• Consolidation methods
• Patients and therapists had manuals
• Supportive Therapy
• Therapist: active listening (face to face)
• Empathy
• Unconditional positive regard
• Reformulation and clarification
• Reflection of the patient's feelings
• Reassurance
• Therapist emphasizes the importance to ventilate problems
• Therapist answers some factual questions
• Therapist politely ignore or refuse requests for advice and directive attitudes
• Therapist demonstrates warmth and genuineness
• Patients and therapists had manuals

Inclusion Criteria:

• DSM-4 DIBR >=8 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Diagnostic inventory for borderline-revised)