Helping patients master core conflictual relationship themes in psychotherapy.

An important component of case formulation is to understand the patient's difficulties in the context of their relationships. The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) method provides a clinical guide for understanding the narratives of relationship conflicts told during therapy. We follow the case of Barbara, a 60 year old with a long history of chronic shyness. Her narratives follow a common CCRT: she wishes to feel safe, but fears that others are out to get her, which makes her withdraw. These patterns have pervasively repeated themselves in the past, present, and across different relationships (self, family, partners, colleagues). The therapist responds carefully by creating safety, tolerating her fears, and working to overcome these CCRT patterns, thus reducing her impulse to withdraw from treatment. Psychotherapists from many theoretical orientations can learn how patients mastering these repetitive negative CCRTs can lead to more adaptive relationship patterns that improve their mental health.

Now and then: a ten-year comparison of young people in residential substance use disorder treatment receiving group dialectical behaviour therapy.

BACKGROUND: Reducing substance use in youth is a global health priority. We compared two cohorts from the same 12-week residential substance use disorder (SUD) facility over a 10 year period: Cohort A (2008-2009) and Cohort B (2018-2020). The essential components of the program remained the same with the primary treatment being dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) plus residential milieu. METHODS: Young people in the current Cohort B (N = 100) versus historical Cohort A (N = 102) had a similar ratio of males (74 vs. 70%) but were slightly older (mean 20.6 vs. 19.5 years). Linear mixed models were used to model outcome measures (global psychiatric symptoms, substance use severity, and quality of life) longitudinally up to 12 months later. RESULTS: Baseline to end-of-treatment comparisons showed that the current Cohort B had overall higher levels of global psychiatric symptoms (d = 0.70), but both groups reduced psychiatric symptoms (Cohort A: d = 1.05; Cohort B: d = 0.61), and had comparable increases in confidence to resist substance use (d = 0.95). Longitudinal data from the current Cohort B showed significant decreases in substance use severity from baseline to 6-month follow-up (d = 1.83), which were sustained at 12-month follow-up (d = 0.94), and increases in quality of life from baseline to end-of-treatment (d = 0.83). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate how DBT plus milieu residential care for young people continues to show positive effects in a 10-year comparison. However, youth seeking treatment today compared to 10 years ago evidenced higher acuity of psychiatric symptoms reinforcing the importance of continuous improvement of psychological treatments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: trial ID ACTRN12618000866202 , retrospectively registered on 22/05/2018, .

Early treatment response in psychotherapy for depression and personality disorder: links with core conflictual relationship themes.

Objective: Depressed personality disorder patients showing an early rapid response (or sudden gain) in psychotherapy have better outcomes. Early responders are five times more likely to recover, despite equivalent ratings of working alliance. We explored core conflictual relationship themes (CCRTs) of early responders compared to others to further elucidate process-outcome links. Method: Patients (N = 20) with diagnosed major depression and personality disorder received 16 weeks of psychodynamic therapy. Early response was defined as a 50% reduction in Beck Depression Inventory symptoms during the first six sessions. Transcripts of therapy session three for early responders (n = 10) and others (n = 10) were analyzed using the CCRT Leipzig/Ulm method, identifying 728 components scored by two independent judges. Results: Relationship narratives showed CCRT-wish satisfaction was lower for those not having an early response, for both CCRT "Response of Other" and "Response of Self" components. These patients told narratives of others as more unreliable, aggressive, and less supportive, with less feelings of being loved and a lower experience of being self-determined. Conclusions: Specific negative relationship patterns may inhibit the ability to benefit from both therapy and extra-therapy relationships, contributing to a slower treatment response.

Neurocognition of females with substance use disorder and comorbid personality disorder: Divergence in subjective and objective cognition.

At least one in four patients with substance use disorder (SUD) meet criteria for personality disorder and overlapping neurocognitive deficits may reflect shared neurobiological mechanisms. We studied neurocognition in females attending residential SUD treatment by comparing SUD with (n = 20) or without (n = 30) comorbid personality disorder. Neuropsychological testing included working memory, inhibition, shifting, verbal fluency, design fluency, psychomotor speed, immediate and delayed verbal memory, processing speed, premorbid functioning, cognitive screening, and self-reported executive function. As expected, whole-sample deficits included working memory (d = -.91), self-reported executive function (d = -.87), processing speed (d = -.40), delayed verbal memory recall (d = -.39), premorbid functioning (d = -.51), and cognitive screening performance (d = -.61). Importantly, the comorbid personality disorder group showed greater self-reported executive dysfunction (d = -.67) and poorer shifting performance (d = -.65). However, they also evidenced better working memory (d = .84), immediate (d = .95) and delayed (d = .83) verbal memory, premorbid functioning (d = .90), and cognitive screening performance (d = .77). Overall executive dysfunction deficits were concordant with those observed in previous SUD studies. Surprisingly, comorbid personality disorder was associated with a pattern indicating poorer subjective (self-report) but better objective performance on a number of tasks, apart from shifting deficits that may relate to emotion dysregulation. Subjective emotional dysfunction may influence the cognitive deficits observed in the personality disorder group.

Improving treatment outcomes for borderline personality disorder: what can we learn from biomarker studies of psychotherapy?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe and common psychiatric disorder and though evidence-based psychotherapies are effective, rates of treatment nonresponse are as high as 50%. Treatment studies may benefit from interdisciplinary approaches from neuroscience and genetics research that could generate novel insights into treatment mechanisms and tailoring interventions to the individual. RECENT FINDINGS: We provide a timely update to the small but growing body of literature investigating neurobiological and epigenetic changes and using biomarkers to predict outcomes from evidence-based psychotherapies for BPD. Using a rapid review methodology, we identified eight new studies, updating our earlier 2018 systematic review. Across all studies, neuroimaging ( n  = 18) and genetics studies ( n  = 4) provide data from 735 participants diagnosed with BPD (mean sample size across studies = 33.4, range 2-115). SUMMARY: We report further evidence for psychotherapy-related alterations of neural activation and connectivity in regions and networks relating to executive control, emotion regulation, and self/interpersonal functioning in BPD. Emerging evidence also shows epigenetic changes following treatment. Future large-scale multisite studies may help to delineate multilevel treatment targets to inform intervention design, selection, and monitoring for the individual patient via integration of knowledge generated through clinical, neuroscience, and genetics research.

Cognitive training and remediation interventions for substance use disorders: a Delphi consensus study.

AIMS: Substance use disorders (SUD) are associated with cognitive deficits that are not always addressed in current treatments, and this hampers recovery. Cognitive training and remediation interventions are well suited to fill the gap for managing cognitive deficits in SUD. We aimed to reach consensus on recommendations for developing and applying these interventions. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We used a Delphi approach with two sequential phases: survey development and iterative surveying of experts. This was an on-line study. During survey development, we engaged a group of 15 experts from a working group of the International Society of Addiction Medicine (Steering Committee). During the surveying process, we engaged a larger pool of experts (n = 54) identified via recommendations from the Steering Committee and a systematic review. MEASUREMENTS: Survey with 67 items covering four key areas of intervention development: targets, intervention approaches, active ingredients and modes of delivery. FINDINGS: Across two iterative rounds (98% retention rate), the experts reached a consensus on 50 items including: (i) implicit biases, positive affect, arousal, executive functions and social processing as key targets of interventions; (ii) cognitive bias modification, contingency management, emotion regulation training and cognitive remediation as preferred approaches; (iii) practice, feedback, difficulty-titration, bias modification, goal-setting, strategy learning and meta-awareness as active ingredients; and (iv) both addiction treatment work-force and specialized neuropsychologists facilitating delivery, together with novel digital-based delivery modalities. CONCLUSIONS: Expert recommendations on cognitive training and remediation for substance use disorders highlight the relevance of targeting implicit biases, reward, emotion regulation and higher-order cognitive skills via well-validated intervention approaches qualified with mechanistic techniques and flexible delivery options.

Priorities for service improvement in personality disorder in Australia: Perspectives of consumers, carers and clinicians.

BACKGROUND: Improvements to service provision for personality disorder has been predominately explored through the perspectives of clinicians, with limited understanding of the views of consumers and carers. The aim of the present study was to understand the priorities for service improvement through multiple perspectives. METHOD: Twelve roundtables, with a total of 53 consumers, clinicians and carers, discussed how organizations could improve service provision for people with personality disorder and completed a questionnaire on current and optimal service provision. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify the priorities for service improvement, and we aimed to identify differences between what participants currently receive and what they believe to be optimal. RESULTS: Four priorities were identified: (1) increasing consumer, carer and peer involvement in care, (2) re-orienting approaches to service provision, (3) improving access and accessibility of treatment and (4) building the capacity of services. Participants were more likely to receive individual or group treatment alone, yet believed combined individual and group treatment to be optimal. Significantly, more participants believed that long-term treatment was optimal. CONCLUSION: A shift in focus from establishing a consistent approach to servicing, to focusing on holistic care that involves consumers and carers in care, is required. © 2020 The Authors Personality and Mental Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The relationship between executive functions and emotion regulation in females attending therapeutic community treatment for substance use disorder.

BACKGROUND: Difficulties in emotion regulation influence the development of substance use disorder (SUD), its severity, course, treatment outcomes, and relapse. Impaired executive functions (EFs) are common in SUD populations and may relate to emotion dysregulation. The current study tested whether performance on three basic EF tasks ('working memory', 'inhibition', and 'task-switching') and/or inventory-based assessment of EF were related to difficulties in emotion regulation in females attending residential SUD therapeutic community treatment. METHODS: Cross-sectional design in which participants (N=50, all female) completed a questionnaire battery including the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Adult Version (BRIEF-A) was used. Participants also completed neuropsychological assessment of EF including the Working Memory Index (WMI; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), and measures of inhibition and task-switching (Color-Word Interference Test; Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System). RESULTS: Executive dysfunction, as assessed by the Global Executive Composite (GEC; BRIEF-A), and personality disorder indicators (Standardised Assessment of Personality - Abbreviated Scale; SAPAS) were positively correlated with DERS scores. Sequential hierarchical regression indicated that task-switching, GEC, and SAPAS scores statistically predicted DERS scores, while working memory and inhibition did not. Mediation analysis indicated that there was a significant indirect effect of GEC scores and task-switching performance on DERS scores, through SAPAS scores. CONCLUSIONS: Impairment of EF, particularly task-switching, is related to difficulties in emotion regulation in a female sample attending residential SUD treatment. Cognitive training interventions that improve task-switching performance may be beneficial in promoting effective emotion regulation and improved SUD treatment outcomes.

Biomarker correlates of psychotherapy outcomes in borderline personality disorder: A systematic review.

Studies of neurobiological mechanisms in borderline personality disorder (BPD) have increased our understanding of the pathophysiology of its development and course. Less is known about how psychotherapy may influence these neurobiological factors, and also whether biomarkers may predict psychotherapy outcomes. We conducted a systematic review using PRISMA guidelines. Fourteen studies providing data from 467 participants diagnosed with BPD met inclusion criteria to: (a) investigate biomarkers predicting response to psychotherapy for BPD; or (b) examine neurobiological factors altered by psychotherapy. Neuroimaging studies (n = 11) used mostly functional magnetic resonance imaging methods to scope brain regions related to emotion regulation and cognitive control. Three studies examined genetic or neuroendocrine markers. The evidence suggests that psychotherapy alters neural activation and connectivity of regions subserving executive control and emotion regulation. Additionally, hypoactivation in prefrontal and cingulate regions predicted treatment response. Further work in this area may inform personalised treatment approaches in clinical practice for BPD through elucidating neural mechanisms of evidence-based psychotherapy.

Cognitive remediation improves executive functions, self-regulation and quality of life in residents of a substance use disorder therapeutic community.

BACKGROUND: Executive dysfunction is common in substance use disorder (SUD) populations and hinders treatment. We previously found that 50% of residents in SUD therapeutic communities had been hospitalized for head injuries; this was a significant determinant of cognitive impairment. The current study aimed to establish whether cognitive remediation improves executive functions (EFs) and self-regulation in an ecologically valid sample of female residents attending SUD therapeutic community treatment, including those with past head injuries and psychiatric comorbidities. METHODS: Controlled sequential groups design with residents (N=33, all female) receiving treatment as usual (TAU). The intervention group (n=16) completed four weeks of cognitive remediation (CR) and the control, TAU only (n=17). Outcome measures assessed pre- and post-intervention included both performance- and inventory-based measures of EFs, and self-reported self-regulation and quality of life. RESULTS: CR relative to TAU significantly improved performance-based assessment of inhibition (Color-Word Interference Test; F=4.29, p=0.047), inventory-based assessment of EFs (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Adult Version: Global Executive Composite; F=6.38, p=0.017), impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale; F=4.61, p=0.040), self-control (Brief Self-Control Scale; F=5.53, p=0.026), and quality of life (Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire - Short Form; F=7.68, p=0.010). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that CR improves EFs in a heterogeneous sample of female residents in therapeutic community SUD treatment. Future research may explore the possibility of tailoring CR interventions for various SUD subgroups.

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is Sensitive to Head Injury and Cognitive Impairment in a Residential Alcohol and Other Drug Therapeutic Community.

INTRODUCTION: Retaining clients in residential alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment is difficult and cognitive impairment has been identified as a significant predictor of treatment dropout. The application of extensive screening for cognitive impairment is cost-prohibitive for most AOD treatment services. The current study aimed to explore cognitive functioning and impairment-associated factors in a typical sample of residential AOD clients using a free brief screening tool that could be utilised by front-line AOD services. METHODS: Residents of an AOD therapeutic community (n=128) and a non-substance using control group (n=37) were administered a brief cognitive screening measure, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). MoCA total and domain scores were compared between these groups and within the AOD group examined in association with primary substance of misuse, severity of dependence, gender, psychological distress, and history of head injury. RESULTS: Almost half (43.8%) of the AOD sample were identified as cognitively impaired, compared to 16.2% of the control group. Furthermore, 67.2% of the AOD sample had sustained head injuries and 50% of the sample required hospitalization for head injury. History of head injury was a significant determinant of cognitive impairment, and associated with greater levels of psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: There are high rates of inter-related cognitive impairment, head injuries, and psychological distress among clients in residential AOD treatment. Routine screening of clients at intake for cognitive impairment by means of a brief screening measure such as the MoCA, in combination with the assessment of history of head injuries and comorbid psychological disorders, could inform treatment modifications or adjunct interventions to increase retention and improve long-term outcomes.