title: Effects of motive-oriented therapeutic relationship in a ten-session general psychiatric treatment of borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR) was postulated to be a particularly helpful therapeutic ingredient in the early treatment phase of patients with personality disorders, in particular with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The present randomized controlled study using an add-on design is the first study to test this assumption in a 10-session general psychiatric treatment with patients presenting with BPD on symptom reduction and therapeutic alliance.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 85 patients were randomized. They were either allocated to a manual-based short variant of the general psychiatric management (GPM) treatment (in 10 sessions) or to the same treatment where MOTR was deliberately added to the treatment. Treatment attrition and integrity analyses yielded satisfactory results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results of the intent-to-treat analyses suggested a global efficacy of MOTR, in the sense of an additional reduction of general problems, i.e. symptoms, interpersonal and social problems (F1, 73 = 7.25, p < 0.05). However, they also showed that MOTR did not yield an additional reduction of specific borderline symptoms. It was also shown that a stronger therapeutic alliance, as assessed by the therapist, developed in MOTR treatments compared to GPM (Z55 = 0.99, p < 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that adding MOTR to psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatments of BPD is promising. Moreover, the findings shed additional light on the perspective of shortening treatments for patients presenting with BPD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychotherapy, CHUV, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ueli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kolly
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Berthoud
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keller
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Preisig
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Caspar
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: de Roten
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marquet
authors.forename: Jean-Nicolas
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Despland
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057194:Intention to Treat Analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D057566:Self Report; D016037:Single-Blind Method