Efficacy of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder

February 4, 2015 updated by: doerings, University Hospital Muenster

A Randomized-Controlled Trial of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy vs. Treatment by Experienced Community Psychotherapists for Borderline Personality Disorder

The purpose of this study is to find out whether Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is effective in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Borderline personality disorder represents a sever clinical condition that affects 1-2% of the community and is characterized by a pervasive instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, as well as a marked impulsivity; up to 10% of the patients commit suicide.

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is one psychotherapeutic approach among five that have been manualized and evaluated in RCTs. So far, TFP has not been compared to a control condition which is a crucial step in the evaluation of the efficacy of a psychosocial intervention.

This study is an RCT that compares one year of outpatient TFP to treatment by experienced community psychotherapists for borderline personality disorder.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

104

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Austria
      • Vienna, Austria, 1090
        • Dept. of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University Vienna
  • Germany
    • Bavaria
      • Munich, Bavaria, Germany, 81675
        • Dept. of Psychiatry, Technical University of Munich

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 45 years (ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Written informed consent to the participation in the study
  • Diagnosis of BPD according to DSM-IV as assessed using the SCID-II
  • Age between 18 and 45 years
  • Sufficient knowledge of the German language

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe substance abuse, organic pathology, or mental retardation according to DSM-IV as assessed using the SCID-I
  • Diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder according to DSM-IV as assessed using the SCID-II

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: TFP
Transference-Focused Psychotherapy
Behavioral: Transference-Focused Psychotherapy
Outpatient psychotherapy according to the treatment manual, sessions of 50 minutes twice per week
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: ECP
treatment by experienced community psychotherapists
Behavioral: treatment by experienced community psychotherapists
Outpatient psychotherapy in private practices or outpatient units of psychiatric hospitals. Licensed psychotherapists with experience and special interest in the treatment of borderline patients are treating according to the method they have learned.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Drop-out
Time Frame: 1 year
Did not finish one year of treatment.
1 year
Suicidality (Suicide Attempts)
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Psychosocial Functioning (Global Assessment of Functioning, GAF-Score)
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year
Level of Personality Organization (Structured Interview for Personality Organization, STIPO)
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year
Number of Self-harming Acts
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year
Self-assessment of Psychopathology (BDI, STAI, BSI)
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year
Attachment Style and Reflective Function (Adult Attachment Interview, AAI)
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year
Borderline Symptomatology (DSM-IV Criteria)
Time Frame: 1 month
1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University Hospital Muenster

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2004

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

February 1, 2009

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

February 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 9, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 9, 2008

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

July 14, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

February 16, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 4, 2015

Last Verified

February 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1106/04
  • 10636 (Other Identifier: CTEP)
  • DPG0802

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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