LPDS Evaluative Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Lewisham Personality Disorder Service Tolerability, Feasibility & Cohort Study
IRAS ID
342853
Contact name
Jonathan Radcliffe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/a, N/a
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
The Lewisham Personality Disorder service offers three treatments for patients in the borough: 1. The Service User Network groups, open to all patients who would like help managing their emotions and harmful behaviour; 2. Mentalization Based Therapy, an eighteen month individual and group treatment which specifically aims to help patients with personality disorder understand their emotional instability and relational difficulties in terms of a deficit in mentalizing capacity. This therapy also tries to improve patients capacity to mentalize; 3. Transference-Focused Psychotherapy, an eighteen month individual and group treatment, which aims to help patients with borderline personality disorder integrate a diffuse sense of identity, including disowned and projected aspects of themselves, so that they have more coherent and flexible self-states, and are better able to manage the difficulties they encounter in relationships as well as their harmful behaviour. In this study we would like to assess how tolerable and feasible the two psychotherapy treatments are (MBT & TFP), the impact on symptoms, and the clinical processes that lead to patients being selected for either treatment.
We will use data on patient outcomes, symptoms and attendance which would ordinarily be collected, that patients consent to, so do not anticipate any ethical issues. For the purposes of publication this data will be anonymised.
We will also invite patients to complete exit interviews tailored for this research re. their treatment in the service, in order to gather qualitative data. If they consent their answers will be anonymised for publication and won't be accessible/identifiable to clinicians who treated them.
This study aims to improve how we treat patients with personality disorder and improve understanding of the disorder for the general public. It will be conducted at the Lewisham Personality Disorder Service, at the Wallace Health Centre in Lewisham. Adult patients with suspected or diagnosed PD will be eligible. The study will last three years. No extra funding will be required.
REC name
London - South East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/PR/1451
Date of REC Opinion
9 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion