title: Mentalization-based therapy (MBT): an overview.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper provides an overview of mentalization-based therapy (MBT). Multiple strands of research evidence converge to suggest that affect dysregulation, impulsivity and unstable interpersonal relationships are core features of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The MBT approach to BPD attempts to provide a theoretically consistent way of conceptualising the inter-relationship of these features.
  
  
  METHODS
  MBT makes mentalizing a core focus of therapy and was initially developed for the treatment of BPD in routine clinical services, delivered in group and individual modalities. This article provides a brief overview of mentalizing and its relevance to BPD, provides an overview of MBT and notes a number of current trends in MBT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MBT provides clinicians with an empirically supported approach to BPD and its treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Whilst mentalizing is viewed as an integrative framework for therapy, more knowledge is needed as to which of the therapies are of most benefit for individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Senior Staff Specialist Psychiatrist, Lady Cilento's Children's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD; and (Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, Griffith University, Meadowbrook, QLD, Australia mfdaub@bigpond.net.au.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daubney
authors.affiliation: Director of Psychotherapy Services, Research Lead for Personality Disorder, Saint Ann's Hospital, London, UK; and Visiting Professor, University College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bateman
mesh_terms: D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: behaviour; borderline personality disorder; mentalization; mentalization-based therapy; psychotherapy