Dr Christopher Lee
Murdoch University
Mental Health Research 2011 and 2012
Dr Christopher Lee was Senior Clinical Psychologist at a major teaching hospital in Perth (Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital) for 11 years where he set up the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) treatment team for Borderline Personality Disorders (BPD). He is now program chair in clinical psychology at Murdoch University. He has had extensive training from leading figures in DBT, and has been accredited in Schema Focused Therapy by the International Society of Schema Therapists. Chris has conducted workshops in treating personality disorders throughout Australia and overseas for the last 15 years. He is involved in research on personality disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder. He has published in the areas of personality assessment and the treatment of PTSD. He has received international awards for research excellence for his work in PTSD. He currently sits on the BPD expert reference group advising the federal minister for health.
SUMMARY OF PROJECT:
Multi-site randomised controlled trial of group schema therapy for borderline personality disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a chronic condition affecting between one and two percent of the population. It is associated with immense distress and suffering and has one of the highest self-harm rates of all the psychiatric disorders. In the last five years, a treatment specifically developed for borderline personality disorder namely Schema Therapy has been found to be more effective than existing usual treatments and a specialized form of psychodynamic therapy. When compared to other specialized treatments, Schema Therapy has very low drop-out rate and is very effective, not only in reducing symptoms, but in improving quality of life. Schema Therapy can lead to full recovery from BPD and normal functioning. However, this therapy is yet to be tested outside of the centres that developed the programme.
This study is part of a large scale international study to investigate the efficacy of the treatment programme across six countries and five languages. The research will compare two different delivery modes of Schema Therapy with existing treatments to see if there is some benefit of this new therapy. The study will enable us to determine not only if the therapy is beneficial in other parts of the world, but by including an Australian site, we can make specific recommendations in an Australian context.
If the project finds that Schema Therapy does have an advantage over typical treatments then this would have significant implications for a wider adoption of this approach within Australian mental health context. People with Borderline Personality Disorder have complex mental health and health needs and are high utilisers of the health services. More efficient treatments would not only reduce their suffering but decrease the costs associated with managing this disorder.