Effects of the dialectical behavioral therapy-mindfulness module on attention in patients with borderline personality disorder

It is known that patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show attention deficits and impulsivity. The main aim of this study was to explore the effects of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy-Mindfulness training (DBT-M), used as an adjunct to general psychiatric management (GPM), on attention variables in patients diagnosed with BPD. A second objective was to assess the relation of mindfulness formal practice on clinical variables. A sample of 60 patients with BPD was recruited. Forty of them were allocated to GPM + DBT-M treatment and the other 20 received GPM alone. At the termination of the mindfulness training, DBT-M + GPM group showed a significant improvement on commissions, hit reaction time, detectability scores from the CPT-II neuropsychological test, and also on the composite scores of inattention and impulsivity. Further, the more minutes of mindfulness practice were correlated to greater improvement in general psychiatric symptoms and affective symptomatology, but not in CPT-II measures. This is probably the first study so far assessing the effects of this single DBT module in patients with BPD. The results suggest a positive effect of such intervention on attention and impulsivity variables.

►DBT-mindfulness is associated with improvement on CPT-II attention variables. ►Impulsivity- and attention-related indexes of CPT-II were more improved than other variables. ►Time spent in formal practice (in minutes) was correlated with improvement of psychiatric and affective symptoms. ► By contrast time spent in formal practice was not correlated with attention variables.