Adjunctive avatar therapy for mentalization-based treatment of borderline personality disorder: a mixed-methods feasibility study

Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterised by severe instability in emotions, identity, relationships and impulsive behaviour. One contributing factor to BPD is deficient mentalizing —our ability to understand the mental states of others and ourselves. Psychotherapies can be effective at reducing symptoms of BPD but effects are small. Innovative ways of enhancing existing therapies are therefore essential. Objective In a mixed-methods, feasibility and acceptability study, we adjuncted conventional mentalization-based treatment (MBT) for BPD with avatar software (avatar-MBT). We wanted to test whether the enhanced visual narrative afforded by the software would facilitate therapy.
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news