Effects of Emotion-focused vs. Cognitive Schema Therapy Interventions on Emotion Regulation Deficits in Borderline Personality Disorder - Associations Between Clinical Efficacy, Brain Network Function and Local Glutamate/GABA Metabolism
Phase: NA
Conditions: Personality Disorders
Sponsor: Jena University Hospital

Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Regulation
Effects of emotion-focused vs. cognitive schema therapy interventions on emotion regulation deficits in 
borderline personality disorder - associations between clinical efficacy, brain network function and local 
glutamate/GABA metabolism
Ethiks approval 04.06.2018, last time edited

Study design
Figure study design: T0/T1 First therapeutic phase is divided into an active (ST-EF) and a passive (ST-AC) condition in terms of emotion-focused 
interventions of ST. It enables the assessment of differential effects of the experiential therapeutic techniques of ST: (i) as compared to the cognitive 
behavioral techniques serving as control condition (T0/T1), (ii) as compared to the influence of time (T1 vs. T2 in healthy controls), (iii) and as compared to 
long-term treatment effects. Marked in grey: Target group sizes as derived from the power calculation, and including possible dropouts in each group. 
schema therapy 
active control
BPD patients
NA ≥ 60; NB ≥ 60
schema therapy 
emotion focused
MRI
NA + NB
T0
MRI
NB ≥ 55
T1
therapeutic phase
9 weeks
MRI
NA ≥ 55
Healthy Controls
NHC ≥ 60
MRI
NHC ≥ 60
MRI
NHC ≥ 40
MRI
T1 anatomy
rs-fMRI
1H-MRS 
pgACC|aMCC|DLPFC
Clinical measures
MRI
NB ≥ 40
T2
MRI
NA ≥ 40
catamnestic phase 
6 month