Abstract

RAMOS, Juan M.; RODRIGUEZ, Alberto; SANCHEZ, Aintzane  and  MENA, Ana. Cognitive fusion in personality disorders: a contribution to research on mechanisms of change. Clínica y Salud [online]. 2018, vol.29, n.2, pp.49-57. ISSN 2174-0550.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5093/clysa2018a8.

Different therapeutic approaches for people with personality disorder (PD) hypothesize different mechanisms of change. We studied whether the cognitive fusion (FC) construct is relevant in the therapeutic change identified in a group of people diagnosed with severe PD (N = 110) after 6 months of intervention. The FC level is higher than that of other published samples (M = 38.5, SD = 8.98) and is associated with a more serious pathology. FC is related to other constructs such as automatic thoughts (r = .529, p < .01) and dysfunctional attitudes (r = .368, p < .01). The FC level is reduced after treatment (t = 4.897, p = .000, d = 0.65), but the hypothesized hindering effect of FC on the symptomatic change in depression, global disturbance, or severity of TP is not supported. The findings are discussed in the context of the overlapping of variables as a possible explanation for the observation that different therapies produce similar benefits and as an incentive to continue building an evidence-based therapeutic practice.

Keywords : Cognitive fusion; Personality disorder; Therapeutic change.

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