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. 2024 Oct 16;25(1):685.
doi: 10.1186/s13063-024-08525-8.

Physical Activity in young female outpatients with BORderline personality Disorder (PABORD): a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Giovanni de Girolamo  1 , Silvia Leone  2 , Miriam D'Addazio  2 , Elena Toffol  2 , Alessandra Martinelli  2 , Sonia Bellini  3 , Stefano Calza  4 , Martina Carnevale  4 , Nadia Cattane  5 , Annamaria Cattaneo  5   6 , Roberta Ghidoni  3 , Antonio Longobardi  3 , Deborah Maffezzoni  2 , Donato Martella  2 , Serena Meloni  7 , Elisa Mombelli  5 , Silvia Pogliaghi  8 , Claudia Saraceno  3 , Giovanni Battista Tura  9 , Roberta Rossi  7
Affiliations

Physical Activity in young female outpatients with BORderline personality Disorder (PABORD): a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial (RCT)

Giovanni de Girolamo et al. Trials. .

Abstract

Background: Current treatments for mental disorders, like pharmacotherapy or psychological approaches, do not lead to full remission in all individuals. Physical activity (PA) is effective at improving psycho-physical health in major depressive and anxiety disorders. However, the efficacy of PA as an adjunctive treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) has not been studied. To date, there are no approved pharmacological treatments for this severe condition and limited accessibility to effective psychotherapeutic interventions. This study tests the efficacy of a structured PA programme as an additional treatment for BPD outpatients.

Methods: The PABORD is a randomised controlled trial for female outpatients (18-40 years) with a BPD diagnosis. The intervention group (n = 32) will participate in a 12-week structured PA programme supervised by a sport medicine physician and preceded by three psychoeducation sessions on healthy eating habits. The control group (n = 32) will receive a 12-week psychoeducation programme on PA, diet, and health risks of a sedentary lifestyle for a total of 8 sessions. The study aims to determine if the PA intervention is superior to the control in reducing BPD symptoms. Secondary aims include improving PA levels and physical and psychological health. Assessments will be conducted at baseline, post-intervention, and 3 months post-intervention.

Discussion: The structured PA programme is expected to outperform the control group in terms of health and PA outcomes at the end of the intervention. Repeated assessments will also help to identify psychosocial factors that influence PA maintenance. Findings will support the potential widespread implementation of PA programmes for BPD treatment.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06461104. Registered on 6 June 2024 {2a}.

Keywords: Accelerometer; Borderline personality disorder; Experience sampling method; Female outpatients; General functioning; Physical activity; Physical activity motivation; Premenstrual symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Timeline showing intervention and control procedures for female BPD outpatients during the 12-week trial period. The orange line represents the 3-month period during which the two treatments take place; the blue line represents the follow-up of a further 3 months; and the red line is for all the following analyses. The top box indicates the treatment schedule for the control group; the box below the timeline represents the treatment schedule for the experimental group
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Planned overview of the assessment timeline for both the experimental and control groups. The experimental and control groups share the same assessment plan; the green line represents all the phases preceding the baseline assessment (T0), corresponding to the enrolment and allocation of participants; the orange line is for the two different treatment phases, each of a 3-month duration; the blue line represents the 3 months of follow-up; the red line is for the final phase of analysis and dissemination of results. The arrows indicate the exact time point for the assessments
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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