The effect of long-term dynamic psychotherapy on the personality structure of patients with Dependent Personality Disorder

The present research aimed at investigating the effect of long-term dynamic psychotherapy with Kernberg’s object relations approach on the personality structure of patients with Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD).
30 clients with DPD were selected among the individuals referred tohealth centres of Tehran for psychotherapy, and based on DSM-5 diagnostic criteriathey met the inclusion criteria. The subjects were selected randomly among referred patients to clinics and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. The informed consent was obtained from the subjects and the experimental group received DPHP sessions for 12 months in a twice weekly session framework. The control group was assigned to psychotherapy in order to observe the ethics of the study. The Semi-Structured Interview of the Personality Organization (STIPO) was initially taken from both groups and was repeated again after six months and the end of the treatment sessions.
The results indicated that the experimental group had a significant reduction compared to the control group in the structural dimensions of defence mechanisms, personality rigidity and identity after 6 months of treatment and in the structural dimensions of object relations, personality rigidity, identity, morality and defence mechanisms at the end of the treatment.
According to the results of this research, long-term psychotherapy intervention with the Kernberg's object relations approach was found to be effective in changing the personality traits of patients with dependent personality disorder and clinical specialists are recommended to use this treatment for patients with DPD.