Mindfulness for adults with BPD, a feasibility study (version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mindfulness approach for adults experiencing Borderline Personality Disorder; supporting the management of intense and fluctuating emotions, a feasibility study
IRAS ID
191645
Contact name
Hannah Droscher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Canterbury Christ Church University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 28 days
Research summary
Existing psychotherapies for adults experiencing BPD symptoms attempt to target acute behaviours (i.e. self-harm and suicidality), but with high dropout. Notably little focus has been placed on directly helping individuals manage the intense and fluctuating emotions they endure. Research indicates that deficits in mindfulness (i.e. difficulties with attention, awareness, and acceptance of internal and external experience) are integral to, and predict BPD features. Dialectical Behaviour therapy (DBT, Linehan, 1993) uses mindfulness as an emotion regulation strategy. It’s inclusion in this therapy is based on the premise that emotion dysregulation underlies BPD pathology, whereby deficits in awareness are seen as a byproduct of this dysregulation. A recent literature review suggests the reverse may be true (Wiswall, 2011) where deficits in awareness may underlie problems with emotion regulation. This evidence extends current theories of emotion regulation and has implications for the clinical application of mindfulness techniques as a larger component of treatment. A dismantling randomised controlled trial is needed to investigate the impact of an intervention in which mindfulness is the core therapeutic ingredient.\n\nIn line with Medical Research Council guidelines, and in anticipation of the complexities of evaluating an intervention within an NHS setting, the next stage of this research programme is feasibility work. Feasibility studies play an essential role in determining whether complex interventions should be subject to efficacy testing. Reports of such studies frequently focus on efficacy potential but less often investigate other elements of feasibility, such as recruitment and retention to the trial, or service-user perspectives on the acceptability of both the intervention and the research methods. The proposed study will therefore be a pre-post study of recruitment and retention rates, acceptability, and will offer the opportunity for preliminary efficacy testing. If found to be feasible, the methods will be replicated in a large (fully powered) trial.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0100
Date of REC Opinion
4 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion