Download Media release Hope for sufferers of Borderline Personality Disorder

Media release
Thursday 19 June 2014
Hope for sufferers of Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder, which is associated with high risk of self-harm and suicide, can
be treated with Group Schema Therapy (GST) with several studies now showing full recovery
in 80% of cases, experts will tell the Australian Psychological Society (APS) College of Clinical
Psychologists Conference in Melbourne this week.
US keynote speakers Prof Joan Farrell and Ida Shaw, Directors of the Schema Therapy
Institute Midwest Indianapolis Centre in the US, say Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is
one of the most severely disabling personality disorders, with a high prevalence rate of one to
five per cent across all cultures and is typicaly very difficult to treat.
“Sufferers have high rates of suicide attempt, frequently self-harm, suffer anger outbursts,
changes in mood, intense fear of abandonment, impulsiveness and an unstable sense of self, ”
says Prof Farrell. “They are high users of mental and health services, including drug and
alcohol services, Emergency Departments, GPs, intensive care units, housing and shelters.”
Schema therapy integrates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with interventions that break
behavioural and emotional patterns, to help people change their entrenched, self-defeating life
patterns – or schemas.
Prof Farrell says they developed the original Group Schema Therapy model over a period of 25
years in their work with BPD patients, and in 2009 published the results of the first randomised
controlled trial to test its effectiveness.
“The trial showed unprecedented results (80% success) in reducing BPD and its symptoms,
and an overall improvement in psychological functioning,” says Prof Farrell. “Many people
found the results unbelievable, but a Dutch study has since replicated the findings.”
Prof Farrell says, “The results suggest that Group Schema Therapy may produce effects more
quickly than individual schema therapy because the group corrective emotional experiences
powerfully impact the schemas that underlie feelings of social isolation, abandonment and
shame,” she says. “And feelings of belonging and acceptance can be provided more powerfully
than in individual therapy.”
“There is no doubt the Group Schema Therapy is a very promising treatment, and replicating
trial results in different countries and settings is an important part of verifying it significance,”
says Prof Farrell.
-EndsFor full Conference details: http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/cclin/conference2014/
Note to editors:
Prof Farrell and Ida Shaw are presenting the keynote address and workshops at the APS
College of Clinical Psychologists Conference in Melbourne 20 – 22 June.
Research papers are available
Prof Farrell and Shaw are in Australia until 18 July conducting Group Schema Therapy
workshops for clinical psychologists
For more information, or to arrange an interview call Rebecca Matthews on 03 8662
3358 or 0435 896 444, or email [email protected]. Find the APS Media team
on Twitter: @APS_Media.
The APS is the largest professional organisation for psychologists in Australia, representing
more than 21,000 members. The APS is committed to advancing psychology as a discipline
and profession. It spreads the message that psychologists make a difference to people’s lives,
through improving psychological knowledge and community wellbeing.