Inpatient schema therapy for patients with personality pathology: Changes in symptomatic distress, schemas, schema modes, coping styles, experienced parenting styles and positive mental health

This study provides an evaluation of group schema therapy (ST) for inpatient treatment of patients with personality pathology who did not respond to previous psychotherapeutic interventions. Forty-two patients were assessed pre- and posttreatment, and 35 patients were evaluated at follow-up 6 months later. The results showed a dropout rate of 35%. Those who dropped out did not differ from those who completed treatment with regard to demographic and clinical variables; the only exception was that those who dropped out showed a lower prevalence of mood disorders. Furthermore, intention-to-treat analyses showed a significant improvement in maladaptive schemas, schema modes, maladaptive coping styles, mental well-being, and psychological distress after treatment, and these improvements were maintained at follow-up. On the other hand, there was no significant change in experienced parenting style as self-reported by patients. Changes in schemas and schema modes measured from pre- to posttreatment were predictive of general psychological distress at follow-up. Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that positive treatment results can be obtained with group ST-based inpatient treatment for patients who did not respond to previous psychotherapeutic interventions. Moreover, these findings are comparable with treatment results for patients without such a nonresponsive treatment history. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)