The effectiveness of functional analytical therapy on cognitive regulation of emotion in patients with borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder affects many cognitive, behavioral and even emotional domains of individuals, so the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of functional analytical therapy on cognitive regulation of emotion in patients with borderline personality disorder.

The research method was quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test with experimental and control groups. The statistical population of this study included all 43 women hospitalized in Mehrafarin Psychiatric Care Center in Karaj in 2020. A total of 33 patients with moderate borderline personality disorder were selected by simple random sampling from each entry and were randomly assigned to two groups of 12 (12 experimental group) (12 control group). The functional analytical psychotherapy package of Tsai, Kohlenberg, Kanter & Waltz (2010) was performed on the experimental group in 10 sessions of 45 minutes. Before and after the sessions, members of experimental and control groups were assessed with pre-test and post-test cognitive regulation of emotion Questionnaire of Garnefski, Kraaij, Spinhoven (2001). Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance mixed with SPSS18 software.

The results showed that functional analytical therapy has a significant effect on improving object relations and coping with hypertensive conditions in patients with borderline personality disorder (p≤0.001).

These results emphasize the level of performance of functional analytical psychotherapy in different areas of cognitive, behavioral and emotional in the treatment of people with borderline personality disorder.