ArticleBorderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation2025
Effects on impulsivity and delay discounting of intermittent theta burst stimulation add-on to dialectical behavioral therapy in borderline personality disorder: a randomized, sham-controlled pilot trial.
Article in Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ventrolateral prefrontal-amygdala repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) modulation of impulsivity in borderline personality disorder: a proof-of-concept study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Approaching rTMS With Openness, Awareness, and Engagement in a Combined Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Framework.Innovations in clinical neuroscienceReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) are both effective in treating borderline personality disorder (BPD). Impulsivity and impaired decision-making are prominent features of BPD, and therapeutic interventions targeting these symptoms could lead to significant improvements. OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS), a modified rTMS protocol that targets the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, would enhance the therapeutic effects of DBT, leading to greater improvements in impulsivity and decision-making compared with sham stimulation.
methodsWe performed a single-blind, randomized, sham-controlled pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of iTBS as an add-on to an 8-week DBT program for BPD in a routine inpatient setting. A total of 53 BPD patients were randomly assigned to receive either iTBS (n = 25) or sham stimulation (n = 28) during weeks 4 to 8 of DBT, and 36 patients met the inclusion criteria for the present analysis (≥ 16 of 20 iTBS/sham sessions and assessment of delay discounting). The study endpoints were the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-15 for impulsivity and the Monetary Choice Questionnaire for decision-making/delay discounting.
resultsA mixed model repeated measures analysis with a 2 × 2 factorial between-subjects design showed a significant overall improvement over time in impulsivity but not in decision-making/delay discounting. No significant differences were found between iTBS and sham, although post hoc tests revealed significant changes in impulsivity in the iTBS group (mean
conclusionsiTBS may offer long-term benefits as an add-on treatment to DBT for impulsivity in BPD, suggesting the need for further investigation in larger-scale studies.
trial registrationRegistered at drks.de (no. DRKS00020413) on January 13, 2020.
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