Background
TREATPD investigates clinical utility of personality disorder (PD) treatment in specialist mental health services. Three state-of-the-art challenges form the background:
- Evidence-base supports manualized PD treatments providing predictable, safer frameworks in treatment of poorly functioning patients, preventing self-harm and hospital admissions. Effects in clinically representative settings need further investigation.“Real life” challenges include broader PD presentation - unlike research dominated by borderline PD.
- Treatment alliance and user satisfaction impacts outcome, but receives little attention in PD research.
- Personal and societal burdens of PD are substantial. TREATPD focuses on societal costs, patient selection,treatment quality, clinical and occupational improvements.
Goals
TREATPD includes several studies and the long-term goals are to increase knowledge on:
- Societal costs of PD,
- Clinical change during treatment (aspects of personality functioning), overall and related to treatment approach, PD type, and severity.
- Treatment quality focusing on completion-rate, alliance and client satisfaction, overall and related to treatment approach, PD type and severity.
- Change in occupational functioning and life quality during treatment, overall and related to treatment approach, PD type and severity.
Financial support
TREATPD associated projects have financial support from Norwegian health authorities (South east and West), Oslo University Hospital, the University of Oslo as well as Stavanger University Hospital.
Collaboration
The Norwegian Network for Personality Disorders (NNPD) is main collaborator. TREATPD has an observational, longitudinal, multicentre design recruiting treatment seeking patients, following their course through PD treatment within specialist mental health services (NNPD quality register, data-collection from 2017, in 2024: N>2000).
Members
Researchers participating in design, implementation and dissemination
- Elfrida Hartveit Kvarstein
- Geir Pedersen
- Benjamin Hummelen
- Theresa Wilberg
- Katharina Teresa Enehaug Morken
- Ingeborg Ulltveit-Moe Eikenæs
PhD candidates
- Carl Aksel Sveen COST OF PD, Vestre Viken HF
- Kjetil Bremer TREATING PD
Associated members:
- Hanna Sayar
Collaboration related to planning, implementation and analyses:
- COST OF PD: Vidar Halsteinli
- Statistikk: Ole Klungsøyr
- Kvalitetslaboratorium Psykoterapi: Andreas Ekberg
User involvement:
- Representation from clinical units, the Personality Disorders Network: Kjell Einar Zahl
- Various individuals with lived experience representing the patient group-
Chosen publications
- Sayar H, Wilberg T, Eikenæs IU, Ekberg A, Leitemo K, Morken KTE, Oftedal E, Omvik S, Ulvestad DA, Pedersen G, Kvarstein EH. Improvement of alexithymia in patients treated in mental health services for personality disorders: a longitudinal, observational study. Front Psychiatry. 2025 Mar 26;16:1558654. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1558654. PMID: 40206651; PMCID: PMC11979213.
- Kvarstein, E. H., Frøyhaug, M., Pettersen, M., Carlsen, S., Ekberg, D. G. A., Fjermestad-Noll, J., Ulvestad, D. A., Gikling, E. L., Hjermann, E., Lindberget, K., Omvik, S., Eikenæs, I. U-M., Hummelen, B., Morken, K. T. E., Wilberg, T., & Pedersen, G. A. F. (2023). Improvement of Personality Functioning among People treated within Personality Disorder Mental Health Services. A Longitudinal, Observational Study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1163347
- Sveen CA, Pedersen G, Wilberg T, Kvarstein EH. The societal costs of avoidant personality disorder. Personal Ment Health. 2025 Feb;19(1):e1644. doi: 10.1002/pmh.1644. PMID: 39572388; PMCID: PMC11582018.
- Sveen, C. A., Pedersen, G., Ulvestad, D. A., Zahl, K. E., Wilberg, T., & Kvarstein, E. H. (2023). Societal costs of personality disorders: A cross?sectional multicenter study of treatment?seeking patients in mental health services in Norway. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1-18. DOI: 10.1002/jclp.23504
- Sveen C-A., Pedersen, G., Hummelen, B., & Kvarstein, E. H. (2023). Societal costs of personality disorders among treatment-seeking patients in Norway: the relative contribution of specific DSM-5 categories. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. doi: 10.1007/s00406-023-01655-1
- Sveen, C.-A., Pedersen, G., Hummelen, B., & Kvarstein, E. H. (2023). Personality disorders - The impact of severity on societal costs. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-023-01715-6