Amygdala neurofeedback as an adjunct to residential dialectical behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Background

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by affective instability and amygdala hyperreactivity. Although dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) reduces symptoms and amygdala-related abnormalities, many patients show only partial remission. Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) amygdala neurofeedback (amy-NF) directly targets hyperactive limbic responses and has shown promise in uncontrolled trials. We examined whether amy-NF adds benefit to inpatient DBT.