Evaluation of a psychoeducational group intervention for family and friends of youth with borderline personality disorder

Jessie Pearce,Carol Hulbert,Jennifer Betts,Martina Jovev,Andrew M Chanen,Louise Mccutcheon,Ben Mckechnie

doi:10.1186/s40479-017-0056-6

Abstract

BackgroundDespite high levels of burden and distress among families with a member who has borderline personality disorder (BPD), only two BPD specific family psychoeducation groups have been empirically evaluated. Neither of these is designed specifically for the family and friends of young people who are presenting early in the course of BPD. This study aimed to evaluate Making Sense of Borderline Personality Disorder (MS-BPD), a three-session, developmentally tailored, manualised psychoeducational group for the family and friends of youth with BPD features.MethodsThe study employed a pre- and post-intervention, repeated measures design. Twenty-three participants completed self-report measures assessing for family burden, psychological distress, and knowledge about personality disorder. Demographic data were collected for the group participants and for their associated young person with BPD. Paired-samples t-tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of the MS-BPD intervention on participants’ burden, distress and personality disorder knowledge.ResultsAt the completion of session three (day 15), group participants reported significantly decreased subjective burden and increased personality disorder knowledge. Objective burden and distress remained unchanged.ConclusionsFamily and friends of young people with BPD features experienced subjective, but not objective, benefit from attending a brief group-based psychoeducation intervention. Longer follow-up is likely to be required to detect behavioural change. The current findings support proceeding to a randomised controlled trial of MS-BPD.

Highlights

Despite high levels of burden and distress among families with a member who has borderline personality disorder (BPD), only two BPD specific family psychoeducation groups have been empirically evaluated
In a study of 44 family members of individuals with BPD, participation in the Family Connections program led to reduced burden, decreased grief and an increased perceived capacity to cope at 2 weeks postprogram completion, with changes maintained at 6 months post-baseline [19]
The Making Sense of Borderline Personality Disorder (MS-BPD) group is a component of the Helping Young People Early (HYPE) program [27], which operates at Orygen Youth Health (OYH), the State Government funded youth mental health service for youth, aged 15–25 years, living in northern and western metropolitan Melbourne, Australia

Summary

Introduction

Despite high levels of burden and distress among families with a member who has borderline personality disorder (BPD), only two BPD specific family psychoeducation groups have been empirically evaluated. Several interventions have been developed for family members of adults with BPD These include the McLean psychoeducation program [16], ‘DBT Family Skills Training’ (DBT-FST) [17, 18], ‘Family Connections’ [19], and ‘Staying Connected when Emotions Run High’ [20]. Of these, only the latter two have published evaluations [19,20,21]. These findings suggest that further evaluation of family interventions is warranted

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