[Towards a pragmatic cohabitation of theoretical and clinical models: The example of "Good Psychiatric Management" in the treatment of borderline personality disorder]. / Pour une cohabitation pragmatique des modèles théoriques et cliniques : l'exemple du « Good Psychiatric Management ¼ dans le traitement du trouble de personnalité borderline.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common disorder in general and clinical populations and is related to potentially severe medical and socio-professional consequences. Treatment of BPD is based on evidence-based psychotherapies (such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Mentalization-Based Therapy, Schema-Focused Therapy or Transference Focused Psychotherapy), which have been shown effective but are poorly available in France. Pharmacological treatments, which are more easily available, are not effective in treating symptoms of the disorder but can be useful in management of comorbidities. In this context, recently called "generalist" models have been developed, which every well-trained psychiatrist can implement in their daily practice, combining practical elements from evidence-based psychotherapies and elements of pharmacological management of symptoms and comorbidities. The purpose of this article is to present one of these models, the Good Psychiatric Management (GPM) and its basic principles and its applications, and to provide one of the first French-speaking resources about this model. In addition, beyond the practical elements proposed by the GPM, we discuss the deeper question that it raises, namely the question of a pragmatic integration of different theoretical and clinical models. Indeed, the treatment of BPD patients is at the junction of different conceptualizations of mental pathology (psychopathological, neurobiological) and different modalities of practice (psychotherapy, biological psychiatry). In a French context, that sometimes separates these two models, and in our opinion GPM constitutes an example of clinical collaboration which shows the interest of the combined role of psychiatrist-psychotherapist.

[Good Psychiatric Management for Borderline Personality Disorder - A Specialized Treatment Applicable in General Care]. / «Good Psychiatric Management¼ pour le trouble de la personnalité borderline - Un traitement spécialisé applicable aux soins généralistes.

This article presents basic notions of "Good Psychiatric Management" (GPM) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). There have been several evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatments for BPD for several decades. Nevertheless, high requirements and motivation required sometimes have a discouraging effect for trainees. GPM aims at offering «good enough¼ and less difficult to implement care. This article presents the notion of Interpersonnal Hypersensitivity and its different attachment states (attached, threatened, abandoned, and desperate) describing internal coherence of BPD and founding therapeutic interventions. GPM is principle based, thus is highly adaptable, as can be seen in integration with other intervention models or implementation of stepped care.

Cet article présente les bases du «Good Psychiatric Management¼ (GPM) pour le trouble de la personnalité borderline. Il existe pour ce trouble différents traitements psychothérapeutiques fondés sur les preuves. Les exigences importantes que ceux-ci représentent en termes de formation et de motivation ont parfois comme effet de décourager les thérapeutes en formation. Le GPM décrit des soins «suffisamment bons¼, accessibles et moins difficiles à implanter. Cet article présente le concept d'hypersensibilité interpersonnelle qui décrit la cohérence interne du trouble et fonde les interventions thérapeutiques. Le GPM est basé sur l'application de principes, ce qui lui donne une adaptabilité importante, par exemple pour l'intégration avec d'autres modèles d'intervention ou des soins par paliers.

Change in Emotional and Theory of Mind Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Changes in emotional processing (EP) and in theory of mind (TOM) are central across treatment approaches for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although the assessment of EP relies on the observation of a patient's self-criticism in a two-chair dialogue, an individual's TOM assessments is made based on responses to humorous stimuli based on false beliefs. For this pilot study, we assessed eight patients with BPD before and after a 3-month-long psychiatric treatment, using functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral tasks. We observed arousal increase within the session of the two-chair dialogue (d = 0.36), paralleled by arousal decrease between sessions (d = 0.80). We found treatment-associated trends for neural activity reduction in brain areas central for EP and TOM. Our exploratory findings using an integrative assessment procedure of changes in EP and TOM point toward evidence for treatment effects at the brain systems level related to behavioral modulation.

Psychotherapy for Personality Disorders in a Natural Setting: A Pilot Study over Two Years of Treatment.

Long-term assessment of the effects of psychotherapy for personality disorders (PDs) in a natural environment is an important task. Such research contributes to enlarge the practice-based evidence, embedded in broad collaborations between clinicians and researchers in psychotherapy for PDs. The present pilot study used rigorous assessment procedures and incorporated feedback loops of outcome information to the therapists in demonstrating the effects of psychotherapy for PD in a natural setting. The number of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), criteria for any PD was the primary outcome (along with psychological distress, depression, impulsiveness, and quality of life as secondary measures), assessed at intake, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of psychotherapy for N = 13 patients with PD. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results demonstrated a large pre-post effect (d = 2.22) for the observer-rated measure (primary outcome), and small to medium effects for the secondary outcomes; these results were corroborated by a steady decrease of symptoms over all five time points, which was significant for several outcomes. These results add a piece to the literature by demonstrating the effects of long-term psychotherapy for PDs in increasingly diverse contexts and suggest that practice-oriented research can be carried out in a collaborative and systematic manner.

The Interpersonal Hypersensitivity Formulation of Good Psychiatric Management as a Psychoeducational Intervention for Borderline Personality Disorder.

Interpersonal hypersensitivity (IHS) is a core organizing concept of Good Psychiatric Management, a generalist treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) that relies on basic tools most clinicians already employ yet is informed by an organized and evidence-based framework, developed for dissemination in various mental health care settings. We work in an inpatient psychiatric unit that specializes in the management of suicidal crises at the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland. Because we see numerous patients with previously undiagnosed BPD during their first hospitalization, we have developed techniques and instruments to promote efficient and easy-to-implement psychoeducation. In this article, we propose a practical and user-friendly measure of IHS that is well-suited for use by multidisciplinary inpatient staff or outpatient nursing-based staff, the IHS Ruler, which is based on a visual analog scale. It is a pragmatic tool for preliminary psychoeducation for patients with BPD and their caregivers. Its ease of use and structured way of presenting the inner experience of these patients in relation to their current interpersonal environment allows caregivers to establish a framework for internal reflection and sharing, discuss the causes of current transactions, and illuminate larger patterns in the causes of the patient's crises. Ultimately, this process can help patients and the clinical staff supporting them anticipate future problems.

Case reports: Using Good Psychiatric Management (GPM) conceptualizations in the dimensional assessment and treatment of personality disorders.

Good Psychiatric Management (GPM) is a generalist clinical management approach for borderline personality disorder that incorporates common ingredients of good standard care for any psychiatric diagnosis with what works from prevailing specialist psychotherapies. Similar to all validated therapies for BPD, it relies on a specified formulation of the disorder' symptoms as arising from interpersonal hypersensitivity, to dynamically describe typical patterns of daily self- and interpersonal issues that drive the instability that defines the general personality dysfunction characteristic of the disorder. Recent adaptations of GPM have been proposed for narcissistic personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, with development of similar dynamic models for both (intrapsychic coherence model and model of overcontrol). New dimensional models of personality disorder diagnosis have been developed to address limitations of categorical approach, but the incorporation of these models into usage in the delivery of clinical services (where categorical approach remains the most used) is limited. This paper describes an adaptation of GPM to two cases of personality disorder that illustrate the usefulness of GPM models for dynamic representation of complex daily fluctuations in internal psychic coherence and interpersonal functioning. Specialist psychotherapies will never meet the demands of public health needs to treat personality dysfunction, and incorporation of new dimensional models of diagnosis are needed for treatments that can provide a minimal standard of care for providers and patients.

Brief psychiatric treatment for borderline personality disorder as a first step of care: Adapting general psychiatric management to a 10-session intervention.

The considerable demand versus supply gap of evidence-based treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD) indicates the need for modular steps of care to tailor fit between individual patients' needs along the trajectory of their clinical course and effective interventions. These trajectories may or may not include lengthy specialized psychotherapies. Good psychiatric management (GPM) for BPD is being practiced by an increasing number of mental health professionals as a basic starting block of mental health services in the community. It remains an open question what duration of GPM is optimal, what the content of a shortened version of GPM may be, and how such brief treatment may be integrated into larger long-term treatment plans for patients with BPD. The present practice review elaborated on a brief version of GPM, addressed its conceptual background and the notion of stepped care in the treatment of BPD, and discussed the clinical tasks and contents of brief psychiatric management in 10 sessions (or lasting 4 months). It also summarized the moderate evidence base of brief forms of GPM: 2 randomized controlled trials of 10-session GPM, and 1 randomized controlled trial of a 6-session GPM psychoeducational group, have found medium-to-large effects in reducing BPD symptoms. Finally, this review offered 2 clinical vignettes of patients either stepping up or down the intensity of their treatment to illustrate how to implement brief GPM and suggested open avenues for future development and clinical practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).