Abstract

Objective:

This study explored how psychological change was experienced and what treatment-related factors or events were perceived as supporting or hindering their process by individuals with borderline personality disorder.

Methods:

Eight BPD sufferers attended a 40-session psychoeducational group intervention at a community mental health care center. At intervention end, personal experience of meaningful change was explored in an in-depth interview and data were content-analyzed. Change in BPD symptoms was assessed by the Borderline Personality Disorder Severity Index IV interview.

Results:

The qualitative content analysis on subjectively perceived meaningful change yielded three core categories: (1) improved ability to observe and understand mental events, (2) decreased disconnection from emotions, emergence of new or adaptive emotional reactions and decrease in maladaptive ones, and (3) a new, more adaptive experience of self and agency. Accordingly, (1) learning and (2) normalizing emerged as the main categories of helpful treatment factors. In turn, treatment-related factors perceived as obstacles were: (1) aggression in the group, and (2) inflexibility. With respect to symptom change, four participants were considered clinically as remitted, and two showed a reliable change.

Conclusions:

Long-term psychoeducational group therapy seems to enhance mentalization / metacognitive functioning and promote self (or personality) integration in BPD patients.

中文翻译：

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“如果你对某事没有一个词，你可能会怀疑它是否真实”——边缘型人格障碍患者的经历如何改变

摘要

客观的：

本研究探讨了心理变化是如何经历的，以及边缘型人格障碍患者认为哪些与治疗相关的因素或事件支持或阻碍了他们的过程。

方法：

八名 BPD 患者在社区心理保健中心参加了 40 次心理教育小组干预。在干预结束时，通过深度访谈探索有意义改变的个人经历，并对数据进行内容分析。BPD 症状的变化通过边缘型人格障碍严重程度指数 IV 访谈进行评估。

结果：

对主观感知的有意义变化的定性内容分析产生了三个核心类别：（1）提高观察和理解心理事件的能力，（2）减少与情绪的脱节，新的或适应性情绪反应的出现以及适应不良反应的减少，以及（3） ) 一种新的、更具适应性的自我和代理体验。因此，(1) 学习和 (2) 规范化成为有用的治疗因素的主要类别。反过来，被视为障碍的与治疗相关的因素是：（1）群体中的攻击性，以及（2）缺乏灵活性。关于症状变化，四名参与者在临床上被视为缓解，其中两人表现出可靠的变化。

结论：

长期心理教育团体治疗似乎可以增强 BPD 患者的心理化/元认知功能并促进自我（或人格）整合。