Skills training as an adjunctive treatment for personality disorders

Personality disorders are usually treated with either psychodynamic or supportive psychotherapy, with psychotropic medication often used as an adjunctive treatment. However, patients with personality disorders pose special treatment issues, because their problems are pervasive and long-standing and they have entrenched deficits in many areas of functioning. In this article, the authors consider the role of skills training in the treatment of personality disorders. They describe a two-pronged approach to the treatment of personality disorders based on a model of deficit compensation. Because skills training has only been investigated in a very limited way in personality disorders, the authors first review research on the use of skills training in Axis I disorders as background for a discussion of ways in which skills training may be applicable to the treatment of Axis II disorders. They describe a number of skills training approaches (social skills training, anger management, and conversational skills) that can be used for a variety of different Axis I disorders. Skills training approaches that are targeted to specific types of disorders (substance use disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, adolescent problems) are also described. The authors then review what is known about the use of skills training in borderline personality disorder and avoidant personality disorder, and propose skills training approaches that may be useful for patients with paranoid personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. Case examples are provided to demonstrate how skills training for personality disorders can be applied in clinical practice.