A pilot before-and-after study of a brief teaching programme for psychiatry trainees in mentalizing skills.

Background And Aims: Negative attitudes in clinicians towards people with personality disorder are common and associated with poor care. National guidelines recommend developing interventions to improve attitudes. Mentalization-based treatment theory and techniques provide a plausible intervention. We therefore evaluated the effect of teaching mentalizing skills on clinicians' attitudes towards personality disorder.

Methods: Pilot before-and-after study of trainee psychiatrists receiving four teaching sessions in mentalizing skills. Self-report questionnaires were completed at baseline and post teaching programme.

Main Outcome Measure: Attitudes to Personality Disorder Questionnaire.

Secondary Measure: Knowledge and Application of Mentalization-based treatment Questionnaire.

Results: Sixteen doctors were recruited with no study drop-out. Mean Attitudes to Personality Disorder Questionnaire score was superior post teaching programme versus baseline (135.3 vs. 124.5, standardised mean difference = 0.72, 95% confidence interval = 0.01 to 1.44). Mean Knowledge and Application of Mentalization-based treatment Questionnaire score was superior post teaching programme versus baseline (112.5 vs. 97.1, standardised mean difference = 1.83, 95% confidence interval 0.98 to 2.67).

Conclusions: As expected from a pilot study, the estimate of effect is imprecise. Within this limitation, our findings suggest that teaching in mentalizing skills improved attitudes and mentalization-based treatment knowledge to a clinically relevant degree. This has important implications for patient outcomes and staff development. Our study paves the way for a full-scale study to provide more precise and robust evidence.