Mindful Hypnotherapy for Cluster B Personality Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial with an Active Control

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Cluster B personality disorders present significant treatment challenges due to emotional dysregulation and rigid interpersonal patterns.
• Mindful hypnotherapy (MH), integrating mindfulness and clinical hypnosis, offers a potential transdiagnostic approach for cognitive and emotional inflexibility.
• Existing treatments often struggle with pervasive symptoms, necessitating novel therapeutic strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of Mindful Hypnotherapy (MH) against an active control condition in reducing Cluster B personality disorder symptoms.
• To evaluate MH as a brief, transdiagnostic intervention for personality disorders.
• To investigate the differential effects of MH on histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, and borderline personality disorders.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 120 adults meeting DSM-5 criteria for Cluster B personality disorders.
• Participants were randomized to either MH or an active control group (CBT/DBT skills), with both conditions involving eight weekly 60-minute sessions.
• Symptom severity was assessed pre- and post-treatment using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III), with data analyzed using ANCOVA.

Main Results:

• Mindful Hypnotherapy (MH) demonstrated significantly greater symptom reduction for histrionic, narcissistic, and antisocial personality disorders compared to the active control (p < .05).
• Effect sizes for MH were substantial, with partial eta-squared values ranging from approximately .16 to .21.
• No significant differences were found between MH and the active control for borderline personality disorder symptoms (p = .31).

Conclusions:

• Mindful Hypnotherapy (MH) is an effective brief intervention for histrionic, narcissistic, and antisocial personality disorders.
• The efficacy of MH for borderline personality disorder remains inconclusive and requires further investigation.
• MH presents a promising transdiagnostic approach for specific Cluster B personality disorders, warranting further study in longer treatment protocols.