A schema therapy-based ehealth program for patients with borderline personality disorder (priovi): Naturalistic single-arm observational study

Abstract

Background: Electronic health (eHealth) programs have been found to be effective in treating many psychological conditions. However, regarding borderline personality disorder (BPD), only a few eHealth programs have been tested, involving small interventions based on the dialectical behavior therapy treatment approach. We investigated priovi, a program based on the schema therapy (ST) approach. priovi is considerably more comprehensive than prior programs, offering broad psychoeducation content and many therapeutic exercises. Objective: We tested the acceptability and feasibility of priovi in 14 patients with BPD as an add-on to individual face-to-face ST. Methods: Patients received weekly individual ST and used priovi over a period of 12 months. We assessed BPD symptom severity using self-reported and interview-based measures. Qualitative interviews were conducted with both patients and therapists to assess their experiences with priovi. Results: BPD symptoms improved significantly (Cohen d=1.0). Overall, qualitative data showed that priovi was positively received by both patients and therapists. Some exercises provoked mild anxiety; however, no serious threat to safety was detected. Conclusions: priovi is a potentially helpful and safe tool that could support individual ST. It needs to be further tested in a randomized controlled study.