Background: The study presents the use of the Unified Protocol (UP) in a case of a male diagnosed with major depressive disorder and schizoid and depressive personality traits. The therapeutic focus of UP is to identify maladaptive behaviors of emotion regulation and to train new regulation strategies such as cognitive re-appraisal or emotional exposure exercises.
Method: This is a single-case research study. The intervention was carried out in twenty 1-hour sessions for 6 months. After treatment completion, follow-ups were conducted at three, six, and twelve months.
Results: The results of the 12-month follow-up revealed a clinically significant change in depressive symptomatology (RCI BDI-II = -5.51), negative affect (RCI NEGATIVE PANAS = -3.61), quality of life (RCIICV-Sp = 4.61) and schizoid (RCIMCMI-III-Schizoid = -4.36) and depressive (RCIMCMI-III-Depressive = -5.24) personality traits. Schizoid and depressive personality traits did not interfere with the application, course, and compliance with treatment. These results are discussed with regard to similar studies, also based on the use of the UP to work on emotion regulation in the treatment of emotional disorders with clinical comorbidity.
Conclusions: The training of emotion regulation strategies through UP could be an effective proposal to treat emotional disorders with pathological personality traits comorbidity.