Empirical evidence of the efficacy of System Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder
Antonella Somma, Nancee Blum, Donald Black, Roberta Alesiani, Silvia Boccalon, Laura Giarolli, Serena Borroni, Cesare Maffei, Andrea Fossati
This study aims to perform a quantitative synthesis of research literature yielding empirical evidence
of the efficacy of System Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS; Blum,
Bartels, John and Pfohl, 2002) in the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). A search
in the SCOPUS and PsychInfo databases yielded 7 studies (4 longitudinal, «open label» and 3 RCT),
which provided data concerning the efficacy of STEPPS in reducing BPD symptom severity, as well as
in reducing self-report depressive and general psychiatric symptoms. Although heterogeneity statistics
were highly significant, cumulative effect size estimates (Cohen d) evidence high efficacy of STEPPS in
reducing the severity of both self-reported (d¯w = 0.91) and observer-rated (d¯w = 1.24) BPD symptoms,
as well as self-reported depressive symptoms (d¯w = 0.89); STEPPS showed moderate cumulative efficacy
in reducing self-reported general psychiatric symptoms (d¯w = 0.65). Although the number of available
studies on STEPPS efficacy was at best moderate, the results of our meta-analysis support the clinical
utility of STEPPS in treating BPD.
Keywords
Borderline Personality Disorder, STEPPS, Meta-analysis, Treatment, Efficacy.
