Effectiveness of EMDR in Borderline Personality Disorder: a RCT Single-blind Study in a Real-world Care Setting (EMBODIER)

Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale degli Spedali Civili di Brescia

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Borderline Personality Disorder

Treatments: Other: Trauma focused psychotherapy: EMDR

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06493708

EMDR2023-02

Details and patient eligibility

About

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder characterized by four major symptomatological domains: interpersonal instability, perceptive and identity disorders, emotional and behavioural dysregulation. Considering a multifactorial etiological model, it has been suggested that the interaction between behavioral, environmental and genetic factors may promote the development of BPD. Early life stress events (ELS) in childhood and adolescence are highly prevalent in this population and constitute an environmental risk factor for the development of BPD. This correlates with the fact that Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is frequently comorbid in BPD leading to more severe symptoms and worse psychosocial functioning. At the therapeutic level, the treatment of BPD is an open challenge as psychotherapeutic interventions are of limited effectiveness and characterized by high drop-out rates. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is the gold standard for treating PTSD. However, scientific evidence on the application of EMDR in patients with BPD is limited. This study aims to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of an EMDR protocol on the nuclear symptomatology of BPD (emotional and behavioral dysregulation) in a group of DBP patients with/without PTSD comorbidity, through a systematic assessment of the peculiar dimensions of the disorder. The basic hypothesis is that EMDR, through a short-term intervention, can act both on the traumatic PTSD-like experiences reported by patients and on the clinical manifestations peculiar to DBP, in particular by improving the emotional regulation capacity of patients with BPD.

Enrollment: 56 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients must be over 18 years old
• A current diagnosis of PBD according to the DSM-5 was confirmed using the SCID-5-CV and SCID-5-PD diagnostic scale

Exclusion criteria

• Suicidal ideation in the last 3 months (suicidal thoughts active intentionally but without specific planning or suicidal thoughts active with planning and intentionality)
• Intellectual disability
• Any active disturbance from use of substances or alcohol
• Any other diagnosis of Axis I, except for Depressive Disorders, Anxious Spectrum Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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56 participants in 2 patient groups

EMDR intervention

Experimental group

Description:

14 sessions of psychotherapy with EMDR will be carried out with patients. One session per week, lasting 90 minutes. The first two sessions will be used for the description of the EMDR method and for stabilization, then there will be treatment sessions.

Treatment:

Other: Trauma focused psychotherapy: EMDR

Waiting List

No Intervention group

Description:

Treatment as usual