Benchmarking and Change Mechanisms in Personality Disorder Treatment

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Intensive psychodynamic therapy (PDT): The KLIPP treatment unit (UPC KU Leuven, campus Kortenberg) provides intensive psychodynamic treatment (PDT) for patients with different types of PDs. There are three different programs that differ in treatment intensity: (1) inpatient treatment program (5 days a week), (2) day treatment program (4 days a week), and (3) a part-time outpatient treatment program of two half days per week. Patients attend one of these programs and stay in the program for at least 6 months (with an average duration of 8 months). The programs include individual and group psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as art, music and psychomotor therapy.

Study summary

Personality disorders (PDs) are severe mental disorders characterized by pathological personality traits as well as problems in identity and interpersonal relationships (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Several effective psychotherapies for PDs have been developed in the past decades, however, two important questions regarding PD treatment have not been sufficiently addressed: (1) how effective are PD treatments outside of the controlled settings of randomized controlled trials (RCTs); (2) are the effects of PDT clinically meaningful; and (3) what are the core processes that produce change in PD treatment? The present observational study aims to address these research gaps by (1) comparing the effects of intensive psychodynamic therapy (PDT) for PDs in a naturalistic setting to benchmarks found in RCTs; (2) analyzing which proportion of patients achieves clinically meaningful change and (3) investigating whether outcomes in intensive PDT are associated with a number of theoretically expected mechanisms of change.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Changes in General Psychological Symptoms — From baseline to treatment termination (on average 9 months after the start of treatment)
  Self-reported severity of general psychological symptoms as assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis \& Melisaratos, 1983).

Trial sites (1)

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