Therapeutic alliance and dropout in patients with borderline pathology receiving residential dialectical behavior therapy

BMC Psychiatry

Research

Michaela Berg¹  Carolin Steuwe¹  Thomas Beblo¹  Martin Driessen¹ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany;

关键词: Borderline Personality Disorder;    Dialectical Behavior Therapy;    Dropout;    Therapeutic alliance;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-023-05061-8

 received in 2022-12-30, accepted in 2023-07-28,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThis study focused on the impact of therapeutic alliance on therapy dropout in a naturalistic sample of patients with borderline pathology receiving dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) in a residential setting. We assumed that low therapeutic alliance shortly after admission would be associated with elevated dropout.Methods44 participants with borderline pathology (≥ 3 DSM-5 borderline personality disorder criteria) in a residential DBT program completed a quality assurance questionnaire set assessing demographic information, pretreatment psychopathology and therapeutic alliance during the first seven days of their residential stay. Predictors of dropout were investigated using binary logistic regression analyses.ResultsThe dropout rate was 34.1% (n = 15). In binary logistic regression analyses with variables covering demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbidities and childhood trauma history, only the therapeutic alliance significantly predicted dropout (z = -2.371, p = .018).ConclusionsThis study supports the importance of therapy process variables, here the therapeutic alliance at the beginning of treatment, as predictors of therapy dropout in borderline pathology. If this finding is replicated, it shows the potential importance of monitoring the therapeutic relationship throughout the therapeutic process. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05289583, retrospectively registered on March 11, 2022.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023