BINGHAMTON, N.Y., June 6 Transference-focused psychotherapy, an intensive form of talk therapy, can help people affected with borderline personality disorder, says a U.S. study.The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, examined three treatments applied to carefully diagnosed borderline personality disorder patients for a period of one year.The treatments included dialectical behavior therapy, supportive psychotherapy, and transference-focused psychotherapy, a specialized psychodynamic form of talk therapy pioneered by study co-author Otto F. Kernberg, of Weill-Cornell, that focuses on dominant emotionally charged themes that emerge in the relationship between patient and therapist."The improvements for the transference-focused psychotherapy patients were not merely statistically reliable, but they represented fairly impressive scientific effects, not just trivial changes," Mark F. Lenzenweger, of Binghamton University, State University of New York, and colleagues at the Weill College of Medicine, said in a statement. "Transference-focused psychotherapy not only helped reduce suicidal behaviors, but also seemed particularly helpful in reducing irritability and angry behaviors." Copyright 2007 by UPI
