Outpatient group SFT for BPD.

The present study is a continuation of a previous study on the effectivity of outpatient treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) by means of Schema Focused Therapy (SFT) as presented by Giesen-Bloo (2006). In this study SFT proved to be effective in reducing borderline personality disorder-specific and general psychopathologic dysfunctioning and in improving quality of life. Due to long duration of the therapy, treatment is costly and waitinglists are long. Because of these reasons SFT has been implemented in group therapy in several institutions for mental health care in the Netherlands. As far as we know, the effectivity of this group-SFT has not been studied so far. In this study group SFT therapy will be compared with individual SFT therapy.

Group SFT treatment is more effective than individual SFT treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder in an outpatient setting.

Primary outcome measurement at baseline, every six months, until six months post-treatment (6 measurements).

individual SFT (historical data) versus group schemafocused therapy (with a duration of two years) for patients with bordeline personality disorder in an outpatient setting.