Comparing the Effectiveness of Mentalization-Based Therapy and Cognitive-Analytic Therapy on Ego Strength and Defense Mechanisms in People With Borderline Personality Disorder

 Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT) and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) are psychotherapy approaches offering specific methods for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of MBT and CAT on improving the ego strength and defense mechanisms in people with BPD.

 This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group design and follow-up stage. In total, 40 men with BPD were selected by purposive sampling technique. The samples were selected from males admitted to Isar psychiatric Hospital and the psychiatric department of Fatemi Hospital in Ardabil City, Iran, in 2018. The samples were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received 20 sessions of MBT, and the second experimental group received 16 sessions of CAT. To collect data, we used psychological inventory ego strength and defense styles questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using mixed model Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe posthoc test.

 The collected results suggested that both interventions were effective in improving the ego strength and defense mechanisms of people with BPD (P<0.001). However, the effect of MBT on the overall score of the ego strength and the immature defenses was higher than that of the other intervention (P<0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference in neurotic defense between the two interventions (P>0.05).

The present research results can support the use of these therapies as part of a non-pharmaceutical treatment program in different treatment centers or psychiatric hospitals.