Chapter 4 136 Further results of our exploratory mediation analyses hint that patients with higher levels of BPP that present with depressive symptoms may profit from treatment that aims to increase affect awareness and psychological mindedness. Contradicting the general explanatory model of alexithymia in BPP, results indicate that targeting alexithymia is not an intervention of choice - or even a ‘prerequisite’ - when the main goal is to decrease occurrence of SIB or dissociation [25, 32, 91]. No evidence was found that alexithymia mediates between BPP and SIB, or between BPP and dissociative experiences. However, when aiming to decrease symptoms of negative mood/depression, results suggest it is recommendable to (also) add interventions to improve affect awareness and psychological mindedness. Future studies, especially those of a longitudinal design and specifically taking into account age and gender, are needed to test and verify current findings.
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