Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy in Group for Personality Disorders: Preliminary Results from a Pilot Study in a Public Mental Health Setting

Abstract

We conducted a pilot study to investigate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a grouppsychotherapy based on Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy (MIT-G) for patients with personality disorders (PDs). Ten outpatients with PD diagnoses were offered 16 sessions of MIT-G delivered in group format. Effect sizes were calculated for changes in symptoms, interpersonal difficulties, and metacognition baseline to treatment end.. Nine patients finished the full treatment protocol with nonsignificant large effect sizes obtained for change in depression, metacognition, impulsiveness and interpersonal problems. This is the first study suggesting that MIT-G is acceptable to outpatients across the spectrum of PDs and is associated with improvements in clinical symptoms, social functioning and metacognition. Despite the limitations of a pilot study, evidence of MIT-G effectiveness is sufficient to warrant further investigation.

Building the alliance and using experiential techniques in the early phases of psychotherapy for avoidant personality disorder

“…In a second study, all three patients with AvPD treated in a multiple-baseline case-series no longer met criteria for a diagnosis of AVPD after 1 year of treatment (Gordon-King | 1221 et al, 2021), moderate to large effect size changes in primary outcomes on AvPD-specific personality functioning were found as well as improvement in alexithymic symptoms. Furthermore, for patients with mixed PDs including AvPD, there are also outcomes from two noncontrolled studies and one pilot randomized controlled trial of MIT delivered in a semi-structured psychoeducational/experiential program (MIT-Group) (Inchausti et al, 2020;Popolo et al, 2018Popolo et al, , 2019. Summarizing across these treatment studies, patients with PDs (including AvPD diagnoses or prominent AvPD traits) demonstrated robust adherence to therapy and therapeutic improvements in terms of symptoms, social functioning, and metacognition.…”

“…Furthermore, for patients with mixed PDs including AvPD, there are also outcomes from two noncontrolled studies and one pilot randomized controlled trial of MIT delivered in a semi‐structured psychoeducational/experiential program (MIT‐Group) (Inchausti et al, 2020; Popolo et al, 2018, 2019). Summarizing across these treatment studies, patients with PDs (including AvPD diagnoses or prominent AvPD traits) demonstrated robust adherence to therapy and therapeutic improvements in terms of symptoms, social functioning, and metacognition.…”

El Cambio De Los Patrones Corporales Relacionales en La Terapia Metacognitiva Interpersonal

“…Si bien es cierto que estas estrategias podrían ayudarle a sobrellevar mejor sus sentimientos de soledad a corto plazo, difícilmente le permitirán satisfacer sus necesidades originales de ser cuidado y querido a largo plazo. Existen abundantes pruebas de que este tipo de patrones interpersonales con el tiempo cristalizan, se perpetúan y pro-vocan altos niveles de sufrimiento y desesperanza (Dimaggio, et al, 2007;Inchausti et al, 2020).…”

“…Por último, la terapeuta invitó a Lucía a reescribir el suceso. Durante este segundo ejercicio de imaginación guiada, afloraron nuevos elementos del paisaje interior de la paciente de los que se infirió un aumento en su capacidad de autorreflexión metacognitiva (Semerari et al, 2003;Inchausti et al, 2017;2018b). Lucía cerró los ojos y se trasladó al episodio.…”

“…En la litera-tura científica, estos patrones se han denominado esquemas interpersonales desadaptativos (Dimaggio, Montano, Popolo y Salvatore, 2015;Luborsky, 1984; Lubosrky y Crits-Christoph, 1998). El objetivo principal de este trabajo es presentar al lector los procedimientos utilizados en la terapia metacognitiva interpersonal (MIT;Dimaggio et al, 2015; para trabajar con estos esquemas de forma global a través del uso de las imágenes mentales y diversos ejercicios sensoriomotores. Con tal objetivo, el artículo se organiza de la siguiente manera.…”