Effectiveness of schema therapy on cognitive strategies of emotion, distress bearing and alexithymia in the patients suffering from borderline personality disorder

The present study was conducted aiming to investigate the effectiveness of schema therapy on cognitive strategies of emotion, distress bearing and alexithymia in the patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. the research method of the present study was quasi-experimental with pretest, posttest and control group design. The statistical population of the present study included the people with borderline personality disorder suffering from consultation centers in the city of Tehran in 2017. Non-probable voluntary sampling method and random replacement were used in the present study in a way that 30 people were voluntary selected and randomly replaced in the experimental and control groups from those with borderline personality disorder referring to consultation centers in the city of Tehran. The experimental group received teaching intervention during two months in eight ninety-minute sessions. The questionnaires of emotion cognitive regulation strategies, distress bearing, alexithymia and borderline personality disorder were applied. The data from the study were analyzed through ANCOVA method via SPSS13 software. the results showed that schema therapy has been effective of emotion regulation, distress bearing and alexithymia in the patients with borderline personality disorder (p<0.001) in a way that this therapy could increase distress bearing and positive emotion regulation in the patients with borderline personality disorder and decrease alexithymia and negative emotion regulation. according to the findings of the present study, schema therapy can be suggested as an efficient method to increase distress bearing and emotion regulation and decrease alexithymia and negative emotion regulation of the patients with borderline personality disorder.