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. 2022 Jun 30;25(2):611.
doi: 10.4081/ripppo.2022.611.

Patient personality characteristics and therapeutic integration: treating borderline personality and emotionally dysregulated-dysphoric personality features

Saryn R Levy  1 , Mark J Hilsenroth  2 , Francine Conway  3 , Jesse Owen  4
Affiliations

Patient personality characteristics and therapeutic integration: treating borderline personality and emotionally dysregulated-dysphoric personality features

Saryn R Levy et al. Res Psychother. .

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between patient personality characteristics and therapeutic integration. Within a sample of patients (N=93) receiving outpatient psychodynamically- oriented psychotherapy, we assessed patient Borderline and Emotionally Dysregulated personality features through the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200), and therapeutic technique using the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale (CPPS) during an early treatment session. We examined personality dimensionally, psychotherapy interventions across different theoretical orientations, as well as psychotherapy integration. These analyses revealed an overlap between the Borderline Clinical Prototype and the Emotionally Dysregulated-Dysphoric Q-factor, with the former associated with higher use of integration and the latter associated with higher use of either psychodynamicinterpersonal or cognitive-behavioural interventions. Secondary analyses also indicated the greater presence of interventions oriented towards emotional exploration and to the didactic instruction of effective symptom coping techniques across both of these personality subtypes early in treatment. The key differences between these personality types, as well as the theoretical, empirical, and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: the authors declare no potential conflict of interest. Ethical approval and consent to participate: this is a manuscript that fulfils all the criteria set forth by APA guidelines. IRB approval from our institution was obtained, and informed consent was provided by all participants. This project was approved by a university IRB committee (#021409).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Interaction between PI and CB techniques with borderline clinical prototype scores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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