INTERPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY ON BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER: A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by pathological attachment pattern, rapid mood fluctuations, emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, distorted aspects of self and interpersonal relatedness. Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is primarily aimed to resolution of interpersonal difficulties, improving both social functioning and psychiatric symptoms. IPT’s effectiveness in unipolar depression led investigators to enlarge the application of IPT. IPT has been proposed to treat BPD, the first among the Personality Disorders, because of its frequent comorbidity with mood disorders and the serious interpersonal issues. The present study attempted to investigate changes in differentiation of self through IPT in a single case diagnosed with BPD. Differentiation of self was measured using Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI, Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). The four interpersonal domains, as stated in IPT, loss/ grief, role transition, interpersonal disputes and interpersonal deficits were evaluated using Interpersonal Inventory. Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961) was also used as an additional objective measure of mood symptoms.Findings indicated that IPT may be considered useful in improving core BPD symptom clusters. Results also indicated considerable impact of therapy across domains of differentiation of self viz total score, emotional reactivity, I- position and fusion with others across baseline, middle and termination phases of therapy. The case study implied promise of IPT in improving functionality and quality of interpersonal relatedness of patients with BPD alongside mood and other core symptoms. It may be included in future researches that target time-limited, relatively shorter impactful psychotherapeutic treatment for BPD.

Keywords: BPD,IPT, Differentiation of Self.