The Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on Emotional Instability and Self-Injurious Behaviors of People with Borderline Personality Disorder and Drug Abusers

Dehghan, Hosein; Najarpour Ostadi, Saeed; Mojtabai, Mina

doi:10.22055/psy.2024.44169.3071

The Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on Emotional Instability and Self-Injurious Behaviors of People with Borderline Personality Disorder and Drug Abusers

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Hosein Dehghan ¹

Saeed Najarpour Ostadi ²

Mina Mojtabai ³

¹ Ph.D. Student in Clinical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Roudhen Branch, Iran.

² Assistant Professor of Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Shabestar branch, Iran.

³ Associate Professor of Faculty of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Rodhen Branch, Iran

10.22055/psy.2024.44169.3071

Abstract

Due to coexistence of borderline personality disorder with substance abuse, it is felt necessary to pay attention to interventions. People with borderline personality disorder are at high risk for substance abuse. Also, Borderline personality disorder is the only disorder for which self-injurious behavior is a criterion behavior Reduction of symptoms and the harm caused by addiction in society is most important that make research necessary. The present study was conducted with the aim of studying the effectiveness of schema therapy on emotional instability and self-injurious behaviors of people with borderline personality disorder and substance abuse. This research was a semi-experimental study with pre-test-post-test method and control group. statistical population was all addicts living in three addiction treatment camps in Tabriz and Ahar. Milon's multi-axis questionnaire was implemented and 30 people who had highest score of borderline disorder were selected as research sample and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. data collection tool was Milon's multi-axis questionnaire, Sanson et al.'s (1998), self-harm questionnaire, and Gratz and Roemer's (2004) emotion regulation difficulty questionnaire. The experimental group received two schema therapy sessions in 12 sessions of 90 minutes each week. Mean and standard deviation and covariance analysis were used to analyze the data. Data analysis was done by SPSS software. In order to investigate the effectiveness of schema therapy on self- injurious behaviors and emotional instability, separately, covariance tests were used. Based on the results obtained from the analysis of variance tests, the observed differences (decrease) in the averages of schema treatment and control groups, in the post-test, are significant in both variables. Therapeutic intervention was effective in reducing the symptoms of self-injurious behaviors and emotional instability, and schema therapy it is effective in improving self-harming behavior and emotional instability. The effectiveness of schema therapy is due to the focus of this treatment on the cognitive function of the person with an emphasis on emotions based on inconsistent schemas, and since in addicted people, the problems are mainly interpersonal, schema therapy has been able to be effective.

Keywords

schema therapy

emotional instability

self-injurious behaviors

borderline personality

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