Transference-focused psychotherapy was developed by Otto F. Kernberg and is based on his model of borderline personality disorder.1,2 The efficacy of transference-focused psychotherapy has been evaluated in two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to date. A 1-year RCT 3 with 90 participants with borderline personality disorder compared transference-focused psychotherapy with dialectical behaviour therapy 4 and psychodynamic supportive therapy. All three groups showed significant positive change in depression, anxiety, global functioning and social adjustment in a multiwave design. Transference-focused psychotherapy and dialectical behaviour therapy were associated with a significant improvement in suicidality, transference-focused psychotherapy and supportive therapy improved facets of impulsivity and only the former yielded a significant improvement in anger, irritability and verbal and direct assault. Moreover, only those individuals in the transference-focused psychotherapy group improved significantly in their reflective function and their attachment style. compared transference-focused psychotherapy to schema-focused therapy 8 in a 3-year RCT with 88 participants with borderline personality disorder. The transference-focused psychotherapy revealed a significantly higher drop-out rate (51.2% v. 26.7%) and -despite improvements in all domains of outcome -significantly smaller treatment effects. The American Psychological Association (Division 12) evaluated transference-focused psychotherapy as having controversial research support. Thus, more research is needed before transference-focused psychotherapy can be considered to have modest or strong research support. 9 The present study aims to bring clarity to the field and to determine whether transference-focused psychotherapy can be regarded as empirically supported treatment according to the American Psychological Association (Division 12) criteria.10 This investigation examines the efficacy of transference-focused psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder in an RCT comparing those randomised to transference-focused psychotherapy with those randomised to a group treated by experienced psychotherapists in the community. Method Study designThe study was approved by the ethics commission of the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria, on 24 March 2004 (ID: UN1950) and was registered at Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00714311). Participants were recruited at the out-patient units of the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technical University of Munich, Germany, and the Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Department, Medical University Vienna, Austria. People who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were given a complete description of the study. Those who gave written informed consent were assessed by trained local research assistants. The results of the first assessments were sent to a researcher outside the two study centres who performed the randomisation. Participants were randomly assigned to either transferencefocused psychotherapy or experienced community...

In this article, we describe the development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO), a semistructured interview designed for the dimensional assessment of identity, primitive defenses, and reality testing, the three primary content domains in the model of personality health and disorder elaborated by Kernberg (1984;Kernberg & Caligor, 2005). Results of this investigation, conducted in a clinical sample representing a broad range of personality pathology, indicate that identity and primitive defenses as operationalized in the STIPO are internally consistent and that interrater reliability for all 3 content domains is adequate. Validity findings suggest that the assessment of one's sense of self and significant others (Identity) is predictive of measures of positive and negative affect, whereas the maladaptive ways in which the subject uses his or her objects for purposes of regulating one's self experience (Primitive Defenses) is predictive of measures of aggression and personality disorder traits associated with cluster B personality disorders. We discuss implications of these findings in terms of the theory-driven and trait-based assessment of personality pathology.

Borderline personality disorder is associated with deficits in personality functioning and mentalisation. In a randomised controlled trial 104 people with borderline personality disorder received either transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) or treatment by experienced community therapists. Among other outcome variables, mentalisation was assessed by means of the Reflective Functioning Scale (RF Scale). Findings revealed only significant improvements in reflective function in the TFP group within 1 year of treatment. The between-group effect was of medium size (d = 0.45). Improvements in reflective function were significantly correlated with improvements in personality organisation.

The Reflective Functioning Scale (RFS) was developed to assess individual differences in the ability to mentalize attachment relationships. The RFS assesses mentalization from transcripts of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). A global score is given by trained coders on an 11-point scale ranging from antireflective to exceptionally reflective. Coding procedures rely on a distinction of demand and permit questions during the AAI. Demand questions directly probe for reflective functioning (RF), whereas permit questions do not. Coding focuses on detecting qualitative markers of RF and qualitative markers of absent RF, respectively. Despite its relevant empirical contributions in clinical research, several psychometric properties of the RFS are still unclear. In this article, we present data on the reliability and internal structure of the RFS based on a combined sample of 196 subjects. We were able to show that (a) the global score can be assessed with good interrater reliability, is relatively stable across time, and is significantly reduced in persons with mental disorders; (b) demand questions are based on a single latent factor; (c) demand questions do not differ in terms of difficulty; (d) all demand questions but 1 are incrementally predictive of the global score; (e) 5 permit questions contribute to the global score over and above demand questions; and (f) the number of qualitative markers of RF is also predictive of the global score. Our results have important conceptual and methodological implications for future studies using the RFS.

Relationships between personality organization, reflective functioning (RF), and the number of Axis I and Axis II disorders were examined. Ninety-two female patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV-TR) borderline personality disorder (BPD) were administered the Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO), the Adult Attachment Interview for assessment of RF, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders. Significant correlations were found between the level of personality organization and the number of Axis I and Axis II diagnoses. In contrast, no association was found between RF and the severity of Axis I and Axis II pathology. RF and level of personality organization were moderately associated. The results indicate that the concept of personality organization is related to the descriptive approach of the DSM-IV-TR. The STIPO provides a differentiated picture of the severity of personality pathology and allows di

Objective This study has two main objectives. The first is to detail the prevalence rates of three key treatment modalities reported by patients with borderline personality disorder and axis II comparison participants over a decade of follow-up. The second is to determine time-to-cessation and time-to resumption of these three treatment modalities reported by patients with borderline personality disorder. Methods The treatment history of 290 reliably diagnosed inpatients with borderline personality disorder and 72 axis II comparison participants was assessed using an interview of proven reliability during their index admission. Treatment history was reassessed at five contiguous two-year follow-up periods. Results In terms of prevalence rates, there was a significant decrease in the percentage of patients with borderline personality disorder (and axis II comparison participants) participating in the three treatment modalities studied. In terms of time-to-cessation and resumption, 52% of patients with borderline personality disorder stopped individual therapy and 44% stopped taking standing medications for a period of two years or more. However, 85% of those who had stopped psychotherapy resumed it and 67% of those who stopped taking medications later resumed taking them. In contrast, 88% had no hospitalizations for at least two years but almost half of these patients were subsequently rehospitalized. Conclusions Taken together, these results suggest that patients with borderline personality disorder tend to use outpatient treatment without interruption over prolonged periods of time. They also suggest that inpatient treatment is used far more intermittently and by only a relative small minority of those with borderline personality disorder.

In diesem Artikel wird eine deutschsprachige Kurzskala des Inventars der Persönlichkeitsorganisation (IPO-16) vorgestellt und in drei klinischen Stichproben mit insgesamt 1300 Personen validiert. Das IPO ist ein international verbreitetes Selbsteinschätzungsinstrument, das in mehreren Versionen vorliegt und zur Erfassung von struktureller Beeinträchtigung in den Bereichen Identität, Abwehr und Realitätsprüfung eingesetzt wird. Die Kurzskala basiert auf 16 versionsübergreifenden IPO-Items und misst den Schweregrad der strukturellen Beeinträchtigung. In den Studien konnte gezeigt werden, dass das IPO-16 (1) intern konsistent ist, (2) eine modellkonforme Faktorenstruktur hat, (3) eine sehr hohe Überlappung zur IPO-Vollversion aufweist, (4) in der Selbsteinschätzung über konvergente und diskriminante Validität verfügt, (5) den Schweregrad der Persönlichkeitsstörung aus Expertensicht unabhängig vom aktuellen Leidensdruck vorhersagt und (6) eine diagnostische Effizienz erreicht, die mit anderen Screening-Instrumenten im Bereich der Persönlichkeitsstörungsdiagnostik vergleichbar ist. Mit dem IPO-16 liegt für den deutschsprachigen Raum erstmals ein ökonomisches und gut validiertes Selbsteinschätzungsinstrument zur Erfassung von struktureller Beeinträchtigung vor.

We investigated attachment representations and the capacity for mentalization in a sample of adult female borderline patients with and without comorbid narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Participants were 22 borderline patients diagnosed with comorbid NPD (NPD/BPD) and 129 BPD patients without NPD (BPD) from 2 randomized clinical trials. Attachment and mentalization were assessed on the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996). Results showed that as expected, compared with the BPD group, the NPD/BPD group was significantly more likely to be categorized as either dismissing or cannot classify on the AAI, whereas the BPD group was more likely to be classified as either preoccupied or unresolved for loss and abuse than was the NPD/BPD group. Both groups of patients scored low on mentalizing, and there were no significant differences between the groups, indicating that both NPD/BPD and BPD individuals showed deficits in this capacity. The clinical implications of the group differences in AAI classification are discussed with a focus on how understanding the attachment representations of NPD/BPD patients helps to illuminate their complex, contradictory mental states.