Cognitive Reappraisal Training for Borderline Personality (BPD)

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Borderline Personality Disorder

• Registration Number: NCT06772831
• Lead Sponsor: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Brief Summary

Previous work by the group convinced the researchers to pursue development of focused cognitive reappraisal training as a novel approach to treatment of BPD, either as stand-alone treatment or in concert with evidence-based treatments of BPD. The present proposal aims to refine and test a proposed clinical intervention for BPD patients, training in reappraisal-by-distancing, in terms of its ability to influence hypothesized neural and behavioral targets and, once that is established, to demonstrate its ability improve clinically relevant outcome measures.

Detailed Description

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a prevalent, enduring and disabling psychiatric condition found in approximately 2% to 5.9% of the population and 20% of hospitalized psychiatric patients. Suicide rates of approximately 10% have been reported. One of the most prominent clinical features of BPD is extreme mood shifts occurring in response to external social/emotional events. The emotional instability in BPD contributes to many of the most disabling, even life-threatening, symptoms of the disorder, including suicidality, outbursts of intense anger, and seriously impaired role functioning. The severity of the BPD symptom profile, its prevalence, chronicity and high burden upon health care services make the development of effective and accessible treatment for BPD a high priority. Yet there is no current medication treatment indicated for BPD and the psychotherapies recognized for the disorder have been shown to have small effect sizes and are of limited availability. The present study builds upon work by the group that has shown that deficiencies in the ability to regulate emotion by engaging typically adaptive cognitive strategies (cognitive reappraisal, CR) and to effectively activate associated neural systems can be corrected by focused training in CR. The R61 phase of this study examines a manualized intensive training program in CR, tests that it effects target neural systems implicated in emotional processing and enhances behavioral reappraisal success. It examines 2-, 4- and 6- weeks of twice a week treatment to identify the optimal dose. Measures include fMRI imaging and clinical ratings at baseline and each of these subsequent time points. Upon demonstrating that CR training is superior to a control condition in enhancing performance in the neural target at one or more of these dose durations, the researchers will proceed to the R33 phase. In the R33 phase, the researchers will treat a larger sample of BPD patients at the optimal 6-week dose defined in the R61 phase to 1) demonstrate reproducibility of the R61 findings, 2) to demonstrate that CR training is superior to control in improving BPD clinical outcomes at the end of treatment and at 1- and 4- month follow-up, and 3) that change in activity at the neural targets is associated with clinical improvement. The results of this study can support the introduction of CR training as a new psychosocial approach for the treatment of BPD, either as stand-alone treatment or as an augmenting strategy. It may, moreover, have application to a range of psychiatric disorders characterized by severe emotional instability.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2024-11-15
• Status Verified: 2025-01
• Study First Submitted: 2025-01-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-01-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-01-09
• Study First Posted: 2025-01-14
• Last Update Posted: 2025-01-14
• Primary Completion: 2027-07-31
• Study Completion: 2027-07-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 130

Inclusion Criteria

• Medically healthy men and women with Borderline Personality Disorder who are mentally competent and give informed voluntary written consent.
• Participants will be between the ages of 18 and 55.
• Within these requirements, the inclusion and exclusion criteria do not reflect participation based on gender or racial/ethnic group. The targeted/planned enrollment is a reflection of previous recruitment of female and ethnic minorities in other studies conducted by the PI and their colleagues and includes representations of both genders and all minorities.

Exclusion Criteria

• Participants will not meet criteria for Schizotypal Personality Disorder or Avoidant Personality Disorder.
• Participants currently meeting criteria for Major Depressive Disorder will be excluded.
• BPD participants will not meet DSM-5 criteria for past or present PTSD, bipolar I disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, substance use disorder within the past 6 months, organic mental syndromes, head trauma, schizotypal personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, CNS neurological disease, or seizure disorder. Participants meeting criteria for a non-IV substance use disorder more than 6 months prior to enrollment will not be excluded. This study allows patients who are currently taking psychotropic medications or are in psychotherapy, so long as there has been no change in medication or psychotherapy over the preceding two months.
• Participants currently meeting criteria for major depressive disorder.
• Participants meeting criteria for substance use disorder within the last 6 months or of an IV-substance use disorder at any time.
• Participants may not have a pacemaker, surgical clips, any metallic implants, or shrapnel fragments that would contraindicate MRI scanning.
• Pregnant women.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Picture Induced Negative Emotion Signature (PINES) Network Activity	Baseline and 6 weeks of treatment	Change in Picture Induced Negative Emotion Signature (PINES) network activity. by measuring neural activation using fMRI.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (ZAN-BPD) Score	Baseline, 6 weeks of treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up	A validated 9-item self-report scale that assesses the severity of borderline personality disorder symptoms across four sectors: affective, cognitive, impulsive, and interpersonal. Total scores range from 0-36, with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale (0-4), where 0 indicates no symptoms and 4 indicates severe symptoms.
Change in Active Lability Scale (ALS) Score	Baseline, 6 weeks of treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up	A 54-item self-report measure that assesses rapid changes in emotional states. Items are rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 ("very uncharacteristic of me") to 3 ("very characteristic of me"). Total scores range from 0-162, with higher scores indicating greater emotional instability.
Change in Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)	Baseline, 6 weeks of treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up	A 10-item self-report measure that assesses the degree to which situations in one's life are appraised as stressful. Items are rated on a 5-point scale from 0 ("never") to 4 ("very often"). Total scores range from 0-40, with higher scores indicating greater perceived stress.
Change in Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) Scores	Baseline, 6 weeks of treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up	A 36-item self-report measure that assesses six dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties. Items are rated on a 5-point scale from 1 ("almost never") to 5 ("almost always"). Total scores range from 36-180, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties with emotion regulation.
Change in Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) Score	Baseline, 6 weeks of treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up	A 21-item self-report measure that assesses the severity of depression symptoms. Items are rated on a 4-point scale from 0-3, with total scores ranging from 0-63. Higher scores indicate more severe depressive symptoms, with scores \>13 suggesting clinically significant depression.
Change in State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAXI) Score	Baseline, 6 weeks of treatment, 1-month follow-up, and 4-month follow-up	A 40-item self-report measure that assesses both state anxiety (current anxiety level) and trait anxiety (general tendency to be anxious). Items are rated on a 4-point scale from 1 ("not at all") to 4 ("very much so"). Scores for each scale range from 20-80, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety levels.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; 🇺🇸 New York, New York, United States