ArticlePsychotherapy and psychosomatics2026
Beyond Self-Reports: Integrating Cortisol Measurement in Psychotherapy Process Research among Adolescents with Borderline Personality Pathology.
Article in Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
<p>Introduction: Psychotherapy is the primary treatment for adolescent borderline personality pathology (BPP), yet its mechanisms remain unclear. Given potential self-report biases due to alexithymia and impaired interoception, this study examined cortisol responses as a physiological stress marker alongside session ratings from adolescent BPP patients and their therapists to assess its potential as a complementary measure in psychotherapy process research.
methodsN = 56 adolescents (94.6% female) with BPP (≥3 DSM-IV BPD criteria) receiving Adolescent Identity Treatment or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and their therapists provided pre- and post-session salivary cortisol samples and completed the Session Evaluation Questionnaire. Residual Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling examined associations between cortisol responses and session ratings, with moderation by age, depression, BPP severity, identity diffusion, and trauma.
resultsCortisol responses did not correlate with session ratings in patients. In therapists, higher cortisol responses were associated with lower session smoothness (r = -0.164; p < 0.001) and deepness (r = -0.086; p = 0.004), as well as with lower positivity (r = -0.145; p < 0.001) and higher arousal (r = 0.072; p = 0.012) post-session. Higher depression levels moderated the association between cortisol responses and session deepness in patients (β = -0.009, p = 0.007).
conclusionWhile session ratings and cortisol responses correlated in therapists, no such correlation was found in patients. Possible mechanisms include altered interoceptive abilities, dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, or increased variability in self-ratings or cortisol due to BPP. While physiological markers and self-reports offer complementary insights into psychotherapy processes, future studies should include healthy and clinical controls and baseline investigation of HPA axis function (i.e., stress reactivity) in both groups, along with additional hormonal markers. </p>.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.