Transference-focused psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder: change in reflective function

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Psychology
• Mental Health

Background:

• Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by impaired personality functioning and difficulties with mentalisation.
• Mentalisation, the capacity to understand one's own and others' mental states, is often compromised in BPD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) against standard community treatment for improving mentalisation in BPD patients.
• To assess the impact of TFP on reflective functioning and its correlation with personality organisation.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 104 participants diagnosed with BPD.
• Participants were assigned to either TFP or treatment by experienced community therapists.
• Mentalisation was measured using the Reflective Functioning Scale (RF Scale).

Main Results:

• The TFP group demonstrated significant improvements in reflective functioning after one year of treatment.
• A medium effect size (d = 0.45) was observed for the between-group difference in reflective functioning.
• Improvements in reflective functioning were positively correlated with enhanced personality organisation.

Conclusions:

• Transference-focused psychotherapy is an effective treatment for enhancing mentalisation in individuals with borderline personality disorder.
• Improved mentalisation through TFP is associated with better overall personality functioning in BPD patients.