Interpersonal psychotherapy: a model of intervention for borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) was proposed in 1984 by Klerman and colleagues. It is a time-limited psychotherapy (12-16 sessions), diagnosis-focused, based on a medical model. Psychiatric symptoms develop in an interpersonal context. Acting on this context, it is possible to induce remission and prevent subsequent recurrences. IPT is aimed at the resolution of the interpersonal crisis, improving social functioning and psychiatric symptoms. At first, it was addressed to treat major depression, not psychotic or bipolar. Later IPT has been applied to a growing number of psychiatric disorders, because of their frequent and remarkable interpersonal dimension. However, specific adaptations of IPT have been required to consider the different clinical characteristics of these disorders. To date, among Axis II disorders, only borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been a target of IPT. The frequent comorbidity with mood disorders and the relational problems due to BPD core symptoms are the main reasons for the proposal of an adapted model of IPT: the IPT-BPD. This model has a longer duration (34 sessions), and is designed to deal with chronicity of BPD, poor therapeutic alliance and the high risk of suicide and self-harm of these patients. Although studies aimed to test the efficacy of IPT in borderline patients were performed with promising results, replication of findings in larger samples is required.