TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of a brief compassion exercise on affect and emotion regulation in patients with personality disorders
AU - Sommers-Spijkerman, Marion
AU - Radstaak, Mirjam
AU - Chakhssi, Farid
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Marjolein Prenger and Silvia Pol for their assistance with the experiment, and the patients who participated in the experiment.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - Background and objectives: Cultivating compassion seems a promising strategy for ameliorating emotion dysregulation in patients with personality disorders (PDs). Thus far, empirical evidence is lacking. This study aimed to examine whether a brief compassion exercise compared to a neutral exercise would positively impact on (implicit) positive affect (PA) and (implicit) negative affect (NA) and foster the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies in an adult clinical sample with PDs. Methods: A total of 24 patients admitted to a Dutch day-hospital treatment center for PDs participated in a two-group cross-over study. Participants were randomly allocated over two groups that were both given the compassion and neutral exercise, yet in a different order. Assessments took place prior to and following each exercise. Participants completed questionnaires assessing (implicit) PA and NA and emotion regulation strategies. Results: Multilevel analyses did not yield significant differences between the neutral and compassion exercise in terms of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation and implicit PA. The compassion exercise was able to significantly decrease implicit NA among participants, relative to the neutral exercise. A significant interaction effect was observed between exercise and sequence of exercises on PA and NA. Limitations: Limitations include the brief duration of the exercises, the control exercise and the low reliability for the emotion regulation measure. Conclusions: The compassion exercise decreased implicit NA but seemed not able to impact on PA, NA and emotion regulation in patients with PDs.
AB - Background and objectives: Cultivating compassion seems a promising strategy for ameliorating emotion dysregulation in patients with personality disorders (PDs). Thus far, empirical evidence is lacking. This study aimed to examine whether a brief compassion exercise compared to a neutral exercise would positively impact on (implicit) positive affect (PA) and (implicit) negative affect (NA) and foster the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies in an adult clinical sample with PDs. Methods: A total of 24 patients admitted to a Dutch day-hospital treatment center for PDs participated in a two-group cross-over study. Participants were randomly allocated over two groups that were both given the compassion and neutral exercise, yet in a different order. Assessments took place prior to and following each exercise. Participants completed questionnaires assessing (implicit) PA and NA and emotion regulation strategies. Results: Multilevel analyses did not yield significant differences between the neutral and compassion exercise in terms of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation and implicit PA. The compassion exercise was able to significantly decrease implicit NA among participants, relative to the neutral exercise. A significant interaction effect was observed between exercise and sequence of exercises on PA and NA. Limitations: Limitations include the brief duration of the exercises, the control exercise and the low reliability for the emotion regulation measure. Conclusions: The compassion exercise decreased implicit NA but seemed not able to impact on PA, NA and emotion regulation in patients with PDs.
KW - Affect
KW - Compassion
KW - Emotion regulation
KW - Personality disorder
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142429138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101803
DO - 10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101803
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85142429138
VL - 78
JO - Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
JF - Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
SN - 0005-7916
M1 - 101803
ER -