Effectiveness of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy on Irrational Beliefs and Anxiety among People with Borderline Personality Disorder

Background: It is necessary to help people with a personality disorder solve the problems related to this disorder and recognize the factors affecting irrational beliefs and anxiety and improve them using different approaches. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on irrational beliefs and anxiety among people with a borderline personality disorder. Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest control group design and follow-up. The statistical population included women diagnosed with bipolar disorder referring to a counseling center in Tehran, Iran, within January-March 2020. The samples were selected by the convenience sampling method due to limitations in the sampling of patients. The research tools used to collect the necessary data included questionnaires, namely the Borderline Personality Test (1984), Beck Anxiety Questionnaire (1997), and Jones Irrational Beliefs Questionnaire (1968). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 22) using the repeated measure analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy had a significant effect on decreasing anxiety (P<0.001) and irrational beliefs (P<0.001). Conclusion: It can be concluded that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy affected irrational beliefs and anxiety among people with a borderline personality disorder.