Treatment of a Patient with Borderline Personality Disorder Based on Phase-Oriented Model of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): A Case Report

This study aimed at reporting the effect of the 3-phase model of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in the treatment of a patient with borderline personality disorder.
A 33-year-old female, who met the DSM-IV-TR criteria for borderline personality disorder, received a 20-session therapy based on the 3-phase model of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Borderline Personality Disorder Checklist (BPD-Checklist), Dissociative Experience Scale (DES-II), Beck Depression Inventory-II-second edition (BDI-II), and Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were filled out by the patient at all treatment phases and at the 3- month follow- up.
According to the obtained results, the patient’s pretest scores in all research tools were 161, 44, 37, and 38 for BPD-Checklist, DES-II, BDI-II, and BAI, respectively. After treatment, these scores decreased significantly (69, 14, 6 and 10 respectively). So, the patient exhibited improvement in borderline personality disorder, dissociative, depression and anxiety symptoms, which were maintained after the 3-month follow-up.
The results supported the positive effect of phasic model of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing on borderline personality disorder.