The Effectiveness of Treatment Based on Mentalization on Psychological Distress and Alexitimia in Adolescents with Symptoms of Borderline Personality

Introduction and purpose: Personality-related issues can be considered among the most challenging social and medical problems. This category of problems has received special attention from mental health professionals, psychiatrists, and sociologists. According to this the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of treatment based on mentalization on psychological distress and alexitimia in adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality.
Methodology: The current study was a semi-experimental application with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the study included adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality who were studying in the second year of high school in Isfahan in the academic year 2023-2024 and were referred to counseling centers and psychological services of education due to symptoms of borderline personality. In this research, 32 adolescent with symptoms of borderline personality were selected by purposeful sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (16 adolescent in the experimental group and 16 adolescent in the control group). The adolescents in the experimental group received the treatment based on mentalization during eight weeks in eight 90-minute sessions. Borderline Personality Disorder Questionnaire (BPDQ), Psychological Distress Questionnaire (PDQ) and Alexitimia Questionnaire (AQ) were used in the present study. The data were analyzed through mixed ANOVA via SPSS23 software.
Finding: The results showed that treatment based on mentalization has significant effect on the psychological distress and alexitimia in the adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality.
Conclusion: Based on the findings of the research, it can be concluded that the treatment based on mentalization by applying mentalization exercises through strengthening intimacy, trust, empathy and understanding in the group and family, practicing understanding the thoughts and feelings of oneself and others, recognizing and dealing with the symptoms of anxiety and depression. It can be used as an efficient method to reduce the psychological distress and alexitimia of adolescents with symptoms of borderline personality.