Effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy for self-criticism in patients with personality disorders: a multiple baseline case series study.

Objective: Targeting self-criticism, the tendency to negatively evaluate and judge aspects of oneself, may improve treatment efficacy for personality disorders (PDs). This study aimed to test whether adding 12-week group compassion-focused therapy (CFT) that explicitly targets self-criticism to treatment as usual (TAU) would reduce self-criticism in patients with PDs.

Method: Twelve patients with PDs participated in a multiple baseline study, randomly allocated to different baseline lengths.

Life stories of patients with personality disorders before and after treatment: Change and stability in agency and communion.

Introduction: Studying written life stories of patients with personality disorders (PDs) may enhance knowledge of how they understand themselves, others and the world around them. Comparing the construction of their life stories before psychotherapy to their reconstruction after psychotherapy may provide insight in therapeutic changes in the understandings of their lives.

Methods: As few studies addressed this topic, the current study explored changes in agency (i.

Effects of a brief compassion exercise on affect and emotion regulation in patients with personality disorders.

Background And Objectives: Cultivating compassion seems a promising strategy for ameliorating emotion dysregulation in patients with personality disorders (PDs). Thus far, empirical evidence is lacking. This study aimed to examine whether a brief compassion exercise compared to a neutral exercise would positively impact on (implicit) positive affect (PA) and (implicit) negative affect (NA) and foster the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies in an adult clinical sample with PDs.

Acceptance and potential clinical added value of biocueing in forensic psychiatric patients with autism spectrum disorder and/or intellectual disability.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID) are prevalent in forensic psychiatric samples. People with ASD and/or ID often experience difficulties in emotion processing which can lead to aggressive or self-harming behavior. The use of biocueing (using wearable technology to constantly monitor and provide feedback on bodily changes) shows promise for improving emotion processing and, thus, potentially reducing aggressive behavior in this population.

Psilocybin-Assisted Compassion Focused Therapy for Depression.

Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, i.e., psilocybin treatment with psychological support, has demonstrated the efficacy of psilocybin to reduce depressive symptoms.

Benefits of Art Therapy in People Diagnosed With Personality Disorders: A Quantitative Survey.

Art therapy is widely used and effective in the treatment of patients diagnosed with Personality Disorders (PDs). Current psychotherapeutic approaches may benefit from this additional therapy to improve their efficacy. But what is the patient perspective upon this therapy? This study explored perceived benefits of art therapy for patients with PDs to let the valuable perspective of patients be taken into account.

Effect of Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder on Quality of Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Whereas several meta-analyses have shown that psychotherapy is effective for reducing borderline personality disorder (BPD) pathology, the overall impact of psychotherapy for BPD on quality of life (QoL) remains as yet unclear. Because impaired QoL is associated with poor long-term outcomes after therapy for BPD, this seems a timely and relevant issue. The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of psychotherapies for adults diagnosed with BPD that reported results of QoL at posttreatment.

The concurrent validity of a Web-based self-report assessment for personality disorders.

Incorporating online tools in clinical practice could help improve routine assessments of personality disorders and their co-occurring clinical disorders. TeleScreen, a Web-based self-report questionnaire for DSM-IV disorders, has not yet been compared with well-validated structured interviews for clinical and personality disorders. Patients with personality disorders (n = 89) were assessed with TeleScreen and independently interviewed with Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I disorders (SCID-I) and personality disorders (SCID-II).

The effect of positive psychology interventions on well-being and distress in clinical samples with psychiatric or somatic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Although positive psychology interventions (PPIs) show beneficial effects on mental health in non-clinical populations, the current literature is inconclusive regarding its effectiveness in clinical settings. We aimed to examine the effects of PPIs on well-being (primary outcome), depression, anxiety, and stress (secondary outcomes) in clinical samples with psychiatric or somatic disorders.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted following PRISMA guidelines.

Inpatient schema therapy for nonresponsive patients with personality pathology: Changes in symptomatic distress, schemas, schema modes, coping styles, experienced parenting styles, and mental well-being.

This study provides an evaluation of group schema therapy (ST) for inpatient treatment of patients with personality pathology who did not respond to previous psychotherapeutic interventions. Forty-two patients were assessed pre- and posttreatment, and 35 patients were evaluated at follow-up 6 months later. The results showed a dropout rate of 35%.

Acceptance and commitment therapy group-treatment for non-responsive patients with personality disorders: An exploratory study.

Patients with personality disorders who did not respond to previous outpatient treatment are among the most challenging patients to treat and are often referred to specialized settings. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an innovative therapy that has shown effectiveness in treatment-resistant cases with chronic or recurrent depression with or without co-morbid personality disorders. The central role that ACT accords to positive values and experiential avoidance may enhance treatment responsivity in patients with personality disorders that did not respond to previous treatments.

Treating the untreatable: a single case study of a psychopathic inpatient treated with schema therapy.

From its first conceptualization in modern psychiatry, psychopathy has been considered difficult if not impossible to treat. Schema Therapy (ST) is a psychotherapeutic approach that has shown efficacy in patients with borderline personality disorder. ST has recently been adapted for personality disordered forensic patients, including patients with high levels of psychopathy.

Early maladaptive cognitive schemas in child sexual offenders compared with sexual offenders against adults and nonsexual violent offenders: an exploratory study.

Introduction: Although there is a growing body of research on the role of offense supporting cognitive distortions in child sexual offending, little is known about the origins of these distortions. According to cognitive theory, maladaptive cognitive schemas originating in adverse childhood experiences with caregivers have been hypothesized to underlie these cognitive distortions.

Aim: This exploratory study investigates early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) in child sexual offenders compared with sexual offenders against adults and nonsexual offenders.

Assessment of implicit sexual associations in non-incarcerated pedophiles.

Offences committed by pedophiles are crimes that evoke serious public concern and outrage. Although recent research using implicit measures has shown promise in detecting deviant sexual associations, the discriminatory and predictive quality of implicit tasks has not yet surpassed traditional assessment methods such as questionnaires and phallometry. The current research extended previous findings by examining whether a combination of two implicit tasks, the Implicit Association Task (IAT) and the Picture Association Task (PAT), was capable of differentiating pedophiles from non-pedophiles, and whether the PAT, which allows separate analysis for male, female, boy and girl stimulus categories, was more sensitive to specific sexual associations in pedophiles than the IAT.

Reliability and validity of the Dutch version of the Behavioural Status Index: a nurse-rated forensic assessment tool.

The Behavioural Status Index (BEST-Index) has been introduced into Dutch forensic psychiatry to measure change in risk level of future violence. The BEST-Index is a structured observational measure that assesses aggressive behavior, degree of insight, social skills, self-care, and work and leisure skills during inpatient treatment. Thus far, limited information regarding the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the BEST-Index is available.

Cost of care of patients with personality disorders in forensic psychiatric hospitals in the Netherlands.

Background: Ter beschikking stelling (TBS) clinics form the mainstay of forensic psychiatric services in the Netherlands. Their costs are rising, but little is known about how these costs are distributed.

Aim: To determine the distribution of service costs for patients with personality disorders in TBS medium security units in the Netherlands.