The Design of neurofeedback protocol and it’s effect on impulsivity, emotional instability, self-mutilation behavior in patient with borderline personality disorder (BPD)

Authors
Fereshte Bakhshian 1
Kamran Yazdanbakhsh 1
Jahangir Karami 1
Seyed Hamze Hoseini 2
1 Razi University
2 Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences
Abstract
Borderline personality disorder is a disorder with a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotions with impulsivity. This disorder is characterized by defects in the frontal activity circuits that play an important role in inhibiting and aggression regulation. The aim of this study is to design a neurofeedback protocol and investigate its effect on impulsivity, emotional instability and self-mutilation behavior in patients with borderline personality disorder. This study is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, follow up and control group design. The research sample consisted of 30 patients with borderline personality disorder that received a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder according to the diagnosis of a psychiatrist and a structured clinical interview based on DSM5. They were selected by available sampling and divided into experimental (neurofeedback training) and control groups randomly. The experimental group underwent 30 sessions of neurofeedback training and the control group was placed on a waiting list.

After the last treatment session, both groups were re-evaluated. To collect the data, The Borderline Personality Disorder Scale (STB), Barat Impulsivity Questionnaire (1957 Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz and Roemer ,2004), and the Self-injury Scale (Swanson et al., 1998) were used. Three months after the study, the subjects were followed up again . The results showed that after controlling the effect of pretest, neurofeedback training had a significant effect on reducing the impulsivity, emotional instability and its components, as well as self-mutilation behavior in the experimental group compared to the control group(p<0/001(. With regard these results, we can say that the neurofeedback training method is an effective way to reduce the impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and self-mutilation behavior in the treatment centers.
Keywords
Neurofeedback
impulsivity
emotional instability
self-mutilation behavior
borderline
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