TY - JOUR

T1 - Treating Avoidant Personality Disorder With Combined Individual Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy and Group Mentalization-Based Treatment

T2 - A Pilot Study

AU - Simonsen, Sebastian

AU - Popolo, Raffaele

AU - Juul, Sophie

AU - Frandsen, Frederik Weischer

AU - Sørensen, Per

AU - Dimaggio, Giancarlo

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) is a severe but understudied condition. The current pilot project reports data on acceptability and outcomes of a novel treatment combining biweekly individual metacognitive interpersonal therapy (MIT) and weekly mentalization-based therapy (MBT) group therapy. A total of 30 patients with AvPD were consecutively included in the program. The primary outcome was AvPD-specific personality functioning measured by self-report after treatment. Secondary outcomes were symptom distress, interpersonal problems, quality of life, and psychosocial functioning. Twenty-two patients completed treatment, with a mean duration of 13 months. On the primary outcome, effect sizes were generally moderate to large (effect size range: 0.59–1.10). On secondary outcomes, effect sizes were large (effect size range: 0.77–2.3). Both in terms of acceptability and outcomes, results are promising for the combination of MIT and MBT for AvPD. The approach is a strong candidate for further investigation in future large-scale randomized controlled trial.

AB - Avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) is a severe but understudied condition. The current pilot project reports data on acceptability and outcomes of a novel treatment combining biweekly individual metacognitive interpersonal therapy (MIT) and weekly mentalization-based therapy (MBT) group therapy. A total of 30 patients with AvPD were consecutively included in the program. The primary outcome was AvPD-specific personality functioning measured by self-report after treatment. Secondary outcomes were symptom distress, interpersonal problems, quality of life, and psychosocial functioning. Twenty-two patients completed treatment, with a mean duration of 13 months. On the primary outcome, effect sizes were generally moderate to large (effect size range: 0.59–1.10). On secondary outcomes, effect sizes were large (effect size range: 0.77–2.3). Both in terms of acceptability and outcomes, results are promising for the combination of MIT and MBT for AvPD. The approach is a strong candidate for further investigation in future large-scale randomized controlled trial.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Avoidant personality disorder

KW - social avoidance

KW - metacognitive interpersonal therapy

U2 - 10.1097/nmd.0000000000001432

DO - 10.1097/nmd.0000000000001432

M3 - Journal article

VL - 210

SP - 163

EP - 171

JO - Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

JF - Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

SN - 0022-3018

IS - 3

ER -