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Effectiveness of EMDR in Borderline Personality Disorder

NCT06493708 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 56

Last updated 2026-02-25

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder characterized by four major symptomatological domains: interpersonal instability, perceptive and identity disorders, emotional and behavioural dysregulation. Considering a multifactorial etiological model, it has been suggested that the interaction between behavioral, environmental and genetic factors may promote the development of BPD. Early life stress events (ELS) in childhood and adolescence are highly prevalent in this population and constitute an environmental risk factor for the development of BPD. This correlates with the fact that Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is frequently comorbid in BPD leading to more severe symptoms and worse psychosocial functioning. At the therapeutic level, the treatment of BPD is an open challenge as psychotherapeutic interventions are of limited effectiveness and characterized by high drop-out rates. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is the gold standard for treating PTSD. However, scientific evidence on the application of EMDR in patients with BPD is limited. This study aims to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of an EMDR protocol on the nuclear symptomatology of BPD (emotional and behavioral dysregulation) in a group of DBP patients with/without PTSD comorbidity, through a systematic assessment of the peculiar dimensions of the disorder. The basic hypothesis is that EMDR, through a short-term intervention, can act both on the traumatic PTSD-like experiences reported by patients and on the clinical manifestations peculiar to DBP, in particular by improving the emotional regulation capacity of patients with BPD.

Conditions

  • Borderline Personality Disorder

Interventions

OTHER

Trauma focused psychotherapy: EMDR

14 sessions of psychotherapy with EMDR will be carried out with patients. One session per week, lasting 90 minutes. The first two sessions will be used for the description of the EMDR method and for stabilization, then there will be treatment sessions.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Azienda Socio Sanitaria Territoriale degli Spedali Civili di Brescia

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Alessandra Minelli, Prof · Università degli Studi di Brescia

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-10-01
Primary Completion
2026-05-31
Completion
2026-10-01

Countries

  • Italy

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06493708 on ClinicalTrials.gov