A Pilot Study on the effectiveness of combined Creative Arts and Psychomotor Therapies on Emotion Regulation in Personality Disorders: A Multiple Baseline Single Case Experimental Design

Introduction: Emotion Regulation (ER) is one of the core problems in Personality Disorders (PD). Experiential interventions, like the Creative Arts and Psychomotor Therapies (CAPTs), work directly on emotions and aim to practice healthy ER behaviors. There has been no previous research using different CAPTs combined and whereas there are indications that the different CAPTs complement each other. Hence, this study aims to assess a combined CAPTs ER intervention in the treatment of PD. Methods: Using a multiple baseline single-case experimental design, a combined CAPTs ER intervention was studied during intensive inpatient treatment for people with severe PD who did not respond to previous outpatient treatment ( N = 11, M = 26.18 years, 91% female). Outcomes ER (DERS), ER Problems and the self-expression and emotion regulation in the CAPTs (SERATS) were measured weekly. Results: Significant positive changes were found on the DERS and the SERATS during and after the CAPTs ER intervention. This was demonstrated in visual analysis and statistical multilevel regression analysis. Scores on ER problems did not change during the intervention, but increased after the intervention during follow up. Conclusions: The combined CAPTs ER intervention improved ER and the experiential mechanisms of the CAPTs were experienced as helpfull. Further research on the working mechanisms of the CAPTs and the long-term effects on ER and ER problems is recommended. Trial registration: This research is retrospectively registered at CCMO.nl, the registration number is NL-010494.