The Effect of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy in Decreasing the Symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder
Subject Areas : Thoughts and Behavior in Clinical Psychology
Keywords: Borderline personality disorder, Dialectic Behavior Therapy, Personality Disorders,
Abstract :
Nearly half of patients with mental disorders suffer from personality disorders. Borderline personality disorder is more prevalent among the individuals with clinical personality disorder. Continuous damages that are brought about by this disorder affect the entire range of life, including the employment, education and marriage. Therefore, the purpose of the present research is to assess the effect of dialectical behavioral therapy in decreasing the symptoms of borderline personality disorder. Therefore, with employing a semi-experimental method, three patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder were assessed during 25 sessions of dialectic behavioral therapy and in terms of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder. Moreover, patients were reassessed subsequent to end of sessions and for following up the results of the intervention. One-war variance analysis with repeated measure indicated that dialectic behavioral therapy is effective in the decrease of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder and the results proved to be stable over time. It appears that, dialectic behavior therapy can decrease the continuous damages of this disorder throughout life and the educational, academic, marital and interpersonal realms. These findings emphasize the need of patients’ active participation in the process of changing themselves, the main role of psychotherapy and the intervention of a clinical psychologist for primary cares and coordinating the patients’ care.