Utilizing MERIT to promote recovery in schizotypal personality disorder: An illustrative case study.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Difficulties forming an integrated sense of oneself, others, and one's place in the community have been observed to pose a barrier to recovery from schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). This has promoted the development of metacognitive approaches to psychotherapy that seek to assist persons in making sense of and managing their psychosocial challenges. One of these approaches, Metacognitive Reflection Insight Therapy (MERIT), has begun to be more broadly explored among adults with schizophrenia. Persons with other forms of SSD, including schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), also experience difficulties forming an integrated sense of themselves and others and could potentially be amenable to MERIT. METHODS: To explore this possibility, this study reports the application of MERIT to an adult with SPD in a unique cultural context. RESULTS: Evidence of acceptability and meaningful resultant clinical gains are described. CONCLUSIONS: Taken as a whole, this study provides a rich illustration of how metacognition can be successfully targeted by MERIT in forms of SSD potentially less severe than schizophrenia, including SPD in a unique cultural setting.