- Published: September 29, 2022
- Updated: September 29, 2022
- University / College: University of Florida
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 48
Psychological Disorder
Introduction
Personality disorder is one of the most common mental health conditions that are difficult to treat. To determine whether the use of psychotherapeutic intervention is effective in treating personality disorder or not, psychology student will select a recent journal and summarize the authors’ perception and conclusion with regards to the success of treating psychological disorder.
Journal Article Summary
Before assessing the effects of different types of psychotherapeutic interventions on personality disorder, the authors stated that psychologists should be aware of possible causes of problems and implement a solution that will avoid disrupting the assessment result of each patient. For instance, personality of a patient may fluctuate because of mood swings (Clark et al., 2003). Therefore it is advisable to observe the patient for at least a year before evaluating a treatment for the patient. Considering that personality disorder is a multifaceted condition, the need to implement a ‘ complex treatment intervention’ (Campbell et al., 2000) is necessary.
Personality disorder is highly associated with other disorders. For this reason, the authors decided to conduct a randomized trial to determine the effects of each psychotherapeutic intervention on patients with borderline personality disorder. To measure any signs of improvement in personality disorders, the authors adapted the Global Assessment Scale (Endicott et al., 1976).
Since patients with personality disorders have different perception with regards to accepting a treatment, the authors have classified patients who are diagnosed with
paranoid, anti-social, and schizoid personality disorders and are often not willing to go through treatment as ‘ Type R’; whereas patients who are willing to go through a treatment as ‘ Type S’. (Tyrer et al., 2003)
The authors discussed the outcomes of psychological treatments on personality disorders. Among the ten types of psychological treatments, the use of transference-focused psychotherapy, community-based treatments, cognitive therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy were proven to be effective in terms of reducing the patients’ suicidal attempts. On top of the positive effect in minimizing patients’ suicidal attempts, the use of community-based treatments is also effective in reducing self-harm and readmission to the psychiatric wards. Likewise, the use of dialectical behavior therapy decreases the patients’ length of stay in psychiatric wards whereas cognitive therapy is seen effective in improving self depressive symptoms.
The outcome of psychodynamic therapy, mentalisation, and group psychotherapy on patients with personality disorder is moderate whereas the use of cognitive analytic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and therapeutic community treatments are considered to be less effective psychiatric treatments.
Conclusion
Considering the positive outcomes of some of the most common psychiatric treatments available for patients with personality disorders, the authors suggest that there is a high possibility that a more promising treatment will be developed in the future. Since the current studies available in treating personality disorder is limited, further study is highly recommended.
References:
Bateman, A. W., & Tyrer, P. (2004). Psychological Treatment for Personality Disorders. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment , 10: 378 – 388.
Campbell, M., Fitzpatrick, R., Haines, A., & et al. (2000). A Framework for the Design and Evaluation of Complex Interventions to Improve Health. In Bateman A. W. & Tyrer P. (ed) ‘Psychological Trement for Personality Disorders’ Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 2004. 10(5): 378 – 388.
Clark, L., Vittengl, J., Kraft, D., & et al. (2003). Separating Personality Traits from States to Predict Depression. In Bateman A. W. & Tyrer P. (ed) ‘Psychological Trement for Personality Disorders’ Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 2004. 10(5): 378 – 388.
Endicott, J., Spitzer, R., Fleiss, J., & et al. (1976). The Global Assessment Scale: A procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance. In Bateman A. W. & Tyrer P. (ed) ‘Psychological Trement for Personality Disorders’ Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 2004. 10(5): 378 – 388.
Tyrer, P., Mitchard, S., & Methuen, C. (2003). Treatment-rejecting and Treatment-seeking Personality Disorders: Type R and Type S. In Bateman A. W. & Tyrer P. (ed) ‘Psychological Trement for Personality Disorders’ Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 2004. 10(5): 378 – 388.