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Evaluation ViewAttendees 7

Personality Disorders
Symposia

Symposium 113 - Pinpointing Mechanisms and Moderators of Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder

Sunday, November 17, 2024
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Location: Grand Ballroom D, Level 5, Downtown Marriott
CE: 1.5

Keywords: Borderline Personality Disorder, Treatment,
Level of Familiarity: All
Recommended Readings: Carmel, A., Rose, M. L., & Fruzzetti, A. E. (2014). Barriers and solutions to implementing dialectical behavior therapy in a public behavioral health system. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 41, 608-614.,   Cheavens, J. S., Southward, M. W., Howard, K. P., Heiy, J. E., & Altenburger, E. M. (2022). Broad strokes or fine points: Are dialectical behavior therapy modules associated with general or domain-specific changes?. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment.,   Stoffers-Winterling, J. M., Voellm, B. A., Rücker, G., Timmer, A., Huband, N., & Lieb, K. (2012). Psychological therapies for people with borderline personality disorder. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (8).,   ,  

Although borderline personality disorder (BPD) was historically pejoratively labeled as difficult to treat (Knight, 1953), the past several decades have heralded a surge in research on efficacious treatments for BPD (Kliem, Kröger, & Kosfelder, 2010; Stoffers et al., 2012). Yet many such treatments remain lengthy and difficult to implement (Carmel, Rose, & Fruzzetti, 2014) and nearly a third of patients dropout or do not show substantial responses to treatment (Kliem et al., 2010; Stoffers et al., 2012). Therefore, there is an urgent need for more efficient and effective treatments for BPD.

Leveraging innovative methods, this series of talks focuses on identifying who benefits most from existing treatments (and who is left out), as well as why people benefit, thereby highlighting ways to make treatments more streamlined and targeted. Ms. Varma will present data on how patterns of clinical severity predict response to dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) for patients with BPD. Ms. Ramadurai will show how emotion regulation may be a mechanism of change in mentalization based therapy, a leading treatment for BPD. Dr. Wilner Tirpak will present data exploring the potential mechanistic role of distress tolerance in a residential DBT-based program. Dr. Dixon-Gordon will present data comparing ingredients of DBT and exploring how patient characteristics interact with treatment ingredients to predict response. Finally, bringing it all together, Dr. Sauer-Zavala will demonstrate the efficacy of a novel treatment for BPD that personalized treatment to personality domains, resulting in an efficient and tailored treatment package.

Our discussant Dr. Cheavens will comment on how these findings pave the way for future research in this area, and recommend how we can learn from these studies to improve our current treatment standards for patients with BPD.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Describe who benefits most from existing treatments, as well as why people benefit from different treatments
  2. Critique existing gaps in the treatment literature regarding BPD.
  3. Outline potential methods for bridging gaps in treatment research in BPD.
  4. Describe multiple, effective, and research supported treatments for BPD.
  5. Describe at least two methods for overcoming existing barriers to care for individuals with BPD.

Presentations:

  • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
    (SYM 113) Organizing Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms, Childhood Maltreatment Experiences, and PTSD Symptoms: Do Unique Subgroups Exist and Influence Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Outcomes?

    Speaker: Sonya Varma, M.A. (she/her/hers) – York University

    Co-author: Sonya Varma, M.A. (she/her/hers) – York University

    Co-author: Shelley McMain, Ph.D. – cAMH

    Co-author: Skye Fitzpatrick, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – York University

  • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
    (SYM 113) Mechanisms of Change During a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Web-based Mentalization Intervention

    Speaker: Ramya Ramadurai, M.A. (she/her/hers) – American University

    Co-author: Ramya Ramadurai, M.A. (she/her/hers) – American University

    Co-author: Vincent Barbieri, Ph.D. – Hillcrest Psychological Associates

    Co-author: Nathaniel R. Herr, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – American University

  • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
    (SYM 113) Distress Tolerance as a Mechanism of Change in Intensive Residential Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents with Borderline Personality Disorder

    Speaker: Julianne Tirpak, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Julianne Wilner Tirpak, Ph.D. – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Alessandro S. De Nadai, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Kathryn Parker, B.A. – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Nathaniel Shogren, B.A. – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Alan Fruzetti, Ph.D. – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Cynthia Kaplan, Ph.D. – McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School

    Co-author: Randy Auerbach, PhD, ABPP – Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University

    Co-author: Daniel P. Dickstein, M.D. – McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School

  • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
    (SYM 113) Mapping Treatment Components to Targets in Dialectical Behavior Therapy

    Speaker: Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon, Ph.D. – University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Co-author: Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon, Ph.D. – University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Co-author: Elinor E. Waite, M.S. (she/her/hers) – University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Co-author: Sarah E. Huffman, B.A. (she/her/hers) – University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Co-author: Michael Constantino, Ph.D. – University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    Co-author: Christopher R. Martell, ABPP, Ph.D. – University of Massachusetts Amherst

    Co-author: Kim L. Gratz, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Toledo

    Co-author: Erin Hazlett, Ph.D. – Mount Sinai Medical School

  • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
    (SYM 113) BPD Compass: Targeting the Higher-order Personality Dimensions That Underscore Varied Presentations of Borderline Personality Disorder

    Speaker: Shannon Sauer-Zavala, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Kentucky

    Co-author: Shannon Sauer-Zavala, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Kentucky

    Co-author: Matthew W. Southward, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Kentucky

    Co-author: Nicole Stumpp, M.S. (she/her/hers) – University of Kentucky

    Co-author: Martina Fruhbauerova, M.S. – University of Kentucky

    Co-author: Stephen Semcho, M.A. – University of Kentucky