Pseudomentalization as a Challenge for Therapists of Group Psychotherapy With Drug Addicted Patients.

One of the main challenges in group therapy with drug-addicted patients is collective pseudomentalization, i.e., a group discourse consisting of words and clichés that are decoupled from any inner emotional life and are poorly related to external reality.

Misleading about MBT in Oslo.

In this correspondence we correct some misleading information about mentalization-based treatment in Oslo, Norway.

Mentalization-Based Treatment From the Patients' Perspective - What Ingredients Do They Emphasize?

The aim of this study was to explore how patients with personality disorder (PD) and substance use disorder (SUD) experience mentalization-based treatment (MBT), in particular what they consider useful and less useful elements of the therapy. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 13 participants were conducted. Participants were interviewed on their experience of the different elements of MBT, their experience of working in the transference, and their view on MBT as a whole.

A Temperament-Attachment-Mentalization-Based (TAM) Theory of Personality and Its Disorders.

Theories of personality and its disorders need, from time to time, to be revised and updated according to new empirical and conceptual developments. Such development has taken place in the realms of affective neuroscience, evolution, and social cognition. In this article, we outline a new personality theory, which claims that phenomena we usually ascribe to the concept personality are best understood by postulating a web consisting of three major constituents: temperament (mainly primary emotions), attachment, and self-consciousness (mentalizing).

Mentalizing underachievement in group counseling: Analyzing the relationship between members' reflective functioning and counselors' interventions.

This study concerns an innovative group counseling method, the narrative mediation path (NMP), which aims to promote mentalization on underachievement among university students. The study analyzes a single NMP case with the aim of investigating whether a counselor's interventions influence the reflective functioning (RF) of the group members and their academic performance. The transcripts of 9 sessions of a single NMP were rated according to the Reflective Functioning Scale.

Case formulations in mentalization-based group therapy.

Ideally, the assessment phase of patients who are referred to mentalization-based treatment (MBT) should conclude with a mentalization- based case formulation. The structure and content of such case formulations are described. Their aim are: i) to enhance treatment alliance and ii) to provide some structure to the treatment process through suggesting privileged themes related to emotions, relational patterns and mentalizing.

Patterns of altered regional brain glucose metabolism in borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder.

Objective: The relationship between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and bipolar II disorder (BIP-II) is disputed but understudied. Here, we investigated brain glucose metabolism in these patient groups and healthy control subjects (HCs).

Methods: Sixty-five subjects, 22 BPD (19 females), 22 BIP-II (17 females), and 21 HC (14 females), were examined using 2-deoxy-2[18F]-fluoro-d-glucose positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning.

Mentalization-based treatment or psychodynamic treatment programmes for patients with borderline personality disorder - the impact of clinical severity.

Objectives: Mentalization-based treatment (MBT), originally designed for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), may be particularly indicated for severe conditions. However, there is limited documentation of how increasing severity of personality disorder (PD) effect outcomes of highly specialized treatments. This study aimed to investigate associations between clinical severity and outcomes for patients in MBT as compared to a psychodynamic group-based treatment programme (PDT).

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder: Dimensionality, Local Reliability, and Differential Item Functioning Across Gender.

This study aims at evaluating the psychometric properties of the antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) criteria in a large sample of patients, most of whom had one or more personality disorders (PD). PD diagnoses were assessed by experienced clinicians using the Structured Clinical Interview for , 4th edition, Axis II PDs. Analyses were performed within an item response theory framework.

The design of the MBT-G adherence and quality scale.

Few group psychotherapy studies focus on therapists' interventions, and instruments that can measure group psychotherapy treatment fidelity are scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the reliability of the Mentalization-based Group Therapy Adherence and Quality Scale (MBT-G-AQS), which is a 19-item scale developed to measure adherence and quality in mentalization-based group therapy (MBT-G). Eight MBT groups and eight psychodynamic groups (a total of 16 videotaped therapy sessions) were rated independently by five raters.

Juggling thoughts and feelings: How do female patients with borderline symptomology and substance use disorder experience change in mentalization-based treatment?

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the experience of central psychological change processes for female patients with borderline symptomology and substance use disorder in mentalization-based treatment.

Method: Semi-structured qualitative interviews on experiences from mentalization-based treatment with 13 participants were conducted. The interview material was analysed within a hermeneutical-phenomenological epistemology, with emphasis on researcher reflexivity.

Primary emotional traits in patients with personality disorders.

There is a longstanding tradition that connects temperament pathology and personality disorders. Emotions are the major constituents of temperament. In mammals, seven primary emotions have been identified: SEEKING, FEAR, CARE, RAGE, SADNESS/PANIC, LUST and PLAY.

Favourable outcome of long-term combined psychotherapy for patients with borderline personality disorder: Six-year follow-up of a randomized study.

Objective: This study reports the six-year follow-up data of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) who participated in the Ullevål Personality Project (UPP), a randomized clinical study comparing outpatient individual psychotherapy (OIP) with a long-term combination programme (CP) comprising short-term day-hospital treatment followed by outpatient combined group and individual psychotherapy.

Methods: For 52 patients, outcomes were evaluated after 8 months, 18 months, 3 years, and 6 years based on a wide range of clinical measures, such as symptom severity, psychosocial functioning, personality functioning, and Axis-I and II diagnoses.

Results: At the six-year follow-up, patients in the CP condition reported significantly greater reduction of symptom distress and improvements in the personality functioning domains Identity Integration and Self-control compared with patients allocated to OIP.

Does a web-based feedback training program result in improved reliability in clinicians' ratings of the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale?

The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale is used in routine clinical practice and research to estimate symptom and functional severity and longitudinal change. Concerns about poor interrater reliability have been raised, and the present study evaluated the effect of a Web-based GAF training program designed to improve interrater reliability in routine clinical practice. Clinicians rated up to 20 vignettes online, and received deviation scores as immediate feedback (i.

The three factors of the psychoticism scale of SCL-90-R.

Former studies have repeatedly found the psychoticism (PSY) scale of Symptom Checklist-90-Revised to be a heterogeneous construct. The aim of this study was to confirm and further explore the nature of this heterogeneity within a large sample of patients with mainly personality disorders. Within a total sample of 3 794 patients, one-half was randomly selected for explorative factor analysis in order to assess the internal structure of the PSY scale and the other half to cross-validate the findings by a confirmatory factor analysis.

Poor Validity of the DSM-IV Schizoid Personality Disorder Construct as a Diagnostic Category.

This study sought to evaluate the construct validity of schizoid personality disorder (SZPD) by investigating a sample of 2,619 patients from the Norwegian Network of Personality-Focused Treatment Programs by a variety of statistical techniques. Nineteen patients (0.7%) reached the diagnostic threshold of SZPD.

Different impulsivity profiles in borderline personality disorder and bipolar II disorder.

Introduction: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and bipolar II disorder (BP II) share clinical characteristics including impulsivity. Their relationship is disputed. In this study, we investigated self-reported impulsivity in these patient groups and in a healthy control group.

Changing from a traditional psychodynamic treatment programme to mentalization-based treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder--does it make a difference?

Objectives: Few studies outside United Kingdom have documented effects of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study aimed to investigate outcomes for BPD patients treated in an MBT programme in a Norwegian specialist treatment unit and compare benefits of the implemented MBT with the unit's former psychodynamic treatment programme.

Design: A naturalistic, longitudinal, comparison of treatment effects for BPD patients before and after transition to MBT.

Step-down versus outpatient psychotherapeutic treatment for personality disorders: 6-year follow-up of the Ullevål personality project.

Background: Although psychotherapy is considered the treatment of choice for patients with personality disorders (PDs), there is no consensus about the optimal level of care for this group of patients. This study reports the results from the 6-year follow-up of the Ullevål Personality Project (UPP), a randomized clinical trial comparing outpatient individual psychotherapy with a long-term step-down treatment program that included a short-term day hospital treatment followed by combined group and individual psychotherapy.

Methods: The UPP included 113 patients with PDs.

Regional cortical thinning may be a biological marker for borderline personality disorder.

Objective: We investigated cerebral cortical thickness and its relation to measurements of difficulties with identifying and describing emotions in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Method: Eighteen SCID-II-diagnosed female patients with BPD and 21 healthy female controls underwent magnetic resonance imaging and completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). First, regional cortical thickness across the cerebral surface was compared between patients and healthy controls.

The impact of extended longitudinal observation on the assessment of personality disorders.

Multiple sources of information are necessary for a valid assessment of personality disorders (PDs). This study investigates the impact of longitudinal observation. The sample comprised 1217 patients from 15 different treatment units.