Comparison of the effectiveness of mentalization and Affect phobia therapy treatment in reducing the symptoms of borderline personality disorder

Among mental illnesses, borderline personality disorder is one of the most common disorders in medical settings. On the other hand, despite the fact that patients with this disorder form a heterogeneous group (Hoprich, 2017), they also have common features that are the most important. They are obvious impulsivity and instability in the three areas of interpersonal relationships, mood and self-image. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of mentalization therapy and emotion therapy treatment in reducing the symptoms of borderline personality disorder. This study was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population in this study included all women with borderline personality disorder symptoms referred to counseling centers in Qom in the age range of 18-35 and from August to October 1399, from which 60 people were selected by availability and in two groups. An experiment and a control group were assigned. All three groups were interviewed and tested before and after the intervention with the Milon-3 questionnaire (Millon, 2000) and according to DSM-5 criteria. Then, both experimental groups underwent subjectivization therapy (Bateman and Fonagy, 2016) and emotion therapy McCullough, 2003) in 8 sessions of 90 minutes, one session per week, and the control group was placed on a waiting list. The results of data analysis were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance using SPSS software version 26 and the results showed that both treatments are effective in reducing the symptoms of borderline personality disorder and mentalization treatment is more effective than emotion therapy. . Also, the results of this effect in the follow-up test remained stable for two months. Therefore, it can be concluded that mentalization therapy along with drug therapy can be used for patients with borderline personality disorder.