Effectiveness of the Iconic Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03011190 |
Recruitment Status :
Completed
First Posted : January 5, 2017
Last Update Posted : May 15, 2018
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Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Personality Disorder, Borderline | Behavioral: Emotional regulation | Not Applicable |
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 40 participants |
Allocation: | Randomized |
Intervention Model: | Parallel Assignment |
Masking: | Double (Participant, Outcomes Assessor) |
Primary Purpose: | Health Services Research |
Official Title: | Effectiveness of the Iconic Therapy in Youth With Suicidal Ideation/Self-injuring Behavior and Borderline Personality Traits: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial |
Actual Study Start Date : | September 2015 |
Actual Primary Completion Date : | July 2017 |
Actual Study Completion Date : | December 2017 |

Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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Experimental: Iconic Therapy
The Iconic Therapy program consists of two parts: a) an intensive program of 10-12-week basic skills group 60-minute duration with a range of 6 to 8 face-to-face inserted sessions and b) an additional one-year program of 4 to 6 gradually less frequent face-to-face sessions. The groups are typically lead by two trainers -therapist and co-therapist- for about 8-12 outpatients. Added to these established sessions, a variable number of face-to-face individual sessions with the principal investigator will also take place. They will depend on participant´s requirements. They will consist on coaching their demands and providing human support throughout the study.
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Behavioral: Emotional regulation
Educate people with difficulty in regulating their emotions and help them acquire skills to do so |
Active Comparator: Support therapy
Support therapy consist of 10-12 weekly group sessions of 60-minute duration. Patients and trainers will learn and debate about different behavioral aspects of the borderline personality disorder: emotional instability and impulses control, Jacobson relaxation technique, self-image and communicational styles, mindfulness, self-esteem or social skills to name a few. The groups are typically lead by two trainers -therapist and co-therapist- for about 8-12 outpatients.Added to these established group sessions, a variable number of face-to-face individual sessions with the principal investigator will also take place. They will depend on participant´s requirements. They will consist on coaching their demands and providing human support throughout the study.
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Behavioral: Emotional regulation
Educate people with difficulty in regulating their emotions and help them acquire skills to do so |
- Change on the severity of borderline personality disorder measured by Borderline Personality Symptom List (BSL-23). [ Time Frame: Baseline and up to 12 months after inclusion. ]This questionnaire (BSL-23) is a dimensional instrument: the most widely used to assess borderline personality disorder symptomatology improvement in clinical trials. The Spanish validated version of the questionnaire will be used.
- Sociodemographic variables [ Time Frame: Baseline ]The following socio-demographic data will be collected: gender, age, marital status, parents´nationality, coexistence (no studies, primary studies, Secondary studies, University, Professional formation), occupation (student, working, both studying and working, pensioner) and family member or allied friend´s phone number for further contacts.
- Change on the suicidal ideation and behavior measured by the Columbia Suicide History Form (SSRS). [ Time Frame: Baseline and up to 12 months after inclusion. ]this instrument measures ideation (wish, thinking, intention and plan), ideation severity (frequency, duration, control capacity, disuasory elements and reasons) and suicidal behavior (attempts and acts). It is considered an adequate tool for treatment planning and research.
- Change on non-suicidal self-injure diagnosis [ Time Frame: Baseline and up to 12 months after inclusion. ]It does not exist a specific validated scale to assess non suicidal self injures so the investigators collected and asked about all the 6 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V) criteria. The investigators aim to separately describe the incidence of suicide attempts/acts vs non suicidal self injures in this study.
- Change on the economic evaluation measured by the Client Service Receipt Inventory (CSRI) - adapted Spanish version (CSRI-Spanish version) [ Time Frame: Baseline and up to 12 months after inclusion. ]Questionnaire to assess use of healthcare/social care services and other economic impacts. This instrument has two subscales to assess either direct costs (emergency services/hospital admissions use, specialised medical consultations, prescribed diagnosis trials and consumed medication) or indirect costs (absenteeism and quantity/quality of job performance on a 100-point scales).
- Change on the maladjustment to the daily life measured by the Maladjustment Scale (EI). [ Time Frame: Baseline and up to 12 months after inclusion. ]It is a brief instrument of 6 self-report items assessing maladjustment to the daily life on psychiatric population. A six point Likert scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 5 (very strong) is used. It is sensitive to therapeutic changes.
- Satisfaction with the treatment assessed by the Opinion of treatment scale (OTS). [ Time Frame: Through therapy completion, an average of 12 weeks. ]It is a quick and easy to administer 6-item scale for assessing satisfaction and rationale credibility : how believable, convincing and logical the treatment was from 0 (not at all) to 10 (very strong).
- Change on the perceived subjective global improvement measured on a 7-point ad hoc Likert scale [ Time Frame: Through therapy completion (an average of 12 weeks) and up to 12 months after inclusion ]Participants will be asked about their subjective impression : much/quite/little bit better, the same or much/quite/little bit worse compared to when they entered the study.
- Change on family and friends´ perceived global improvement [ Time Frame: Through therapy completion (an average of 12 weeks) and up to 12 months after inclusion ]Family and friend´s perceived global improvement will be asked on a 7-point ad hoc Likert scale: much/quite/little bit better, the same or much/quite/little bit worse compared to when they entered the study.

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Ages Eligible for Study: | 15 Years to 25 Years (Child, Adult) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | Yes |
Inclusion Criteria:
- Aged 15-25 years old
- Suicidal ideation and/or self-injuring behavior
- BPD behavioural trends defined as the cut point for alarming BPD traits (>38 score) on Exploratory Questionnaire of Personality-III-BPD (CEPER-III-BPD)
- Sufficiently proficient in Spanish to follow the treatment
Exclusion Criteria:
- Antisocial personality disorder as measured in the Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV Axis II) (SCID-II)
- Substance or alcohol abuse
- High suicidal risk
- Negative expectations to be enrolled in the study as measured < 35 by the Expectation of Treatment Scale (ETS)

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT03011190
Spain | |
Silvia E. Hurtado-Santiago | |
Malaga, Spain, 29190 |
Study Chair: | Rosa Bersabé, Psychologist | Malaga University | |
Study Director: | Fermín Mayoral, Psychiatrist | Hospital Regional de Malaga |
Responsible Party: | Silvia Elisa Hurtado Santiago, Principal investigator, University of Malaga |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT03011190 |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
shs-ico-2015-01 |
First Posted: | January 5, 2017 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | May 15, 2018 |
Last Verified: | May 2018 |
Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement: | |
Plan to Share IPD: | Undecided |
Terapia Iconica BPD adolescence suicide |
Personality Disorders Borderline Personality Disorder Mental Disorders |