JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with emotional dysregulation, recurrent crises, self-harm, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and frequent use of psychiatric inpatient services. Although psychotherapy remains the cornerstone of treatment, patients may continue to experience substantial distress during acute hospitalization. Auricular acupuncture may provide a brief nonpharmacological adjunct to usual care; however, its feasibility in adults hospitalized with BPD has not been established.

Objective:

This pilot study aims primarily to evaluate the feasibility of a nurse-led auricular acupuncture intervention based on the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association protocol and secondarily to explore preliminary changes in selected clinical outcomes.

Methods:

Methods:

This single-centre, quasi-experimental pilot study uses a single-arm pre–post design. The study is recruiting 15 adults hospitalized with BPD from four adult psychiatric inpatient units in French-speaking Switzerland. Participants receive five individual auricular acupuncture sessions over 9 days, delivered by trained mental health nurses in addition to treatment as usual. The primary feasibility outcome is attendance, with feasibility considered satisfactory if at least 75% of participants attend 4 or more of the 5 planned sessions. Additional feasibility outcomes include recruitment rate, session duration, dropout and reasons for discontinuation, data completeness, and adverse events. Preliminary clinical outcomes include impulsive aggression, anxiety, deliberate self-harm, relaxation, sleep quality, treatment satisfaction, clinical severity and improvement, and use of benzodiazepines and benzodiazepine-related medications. Participants are followed for 12 days, including a postintervention assessment 2 days after the final acupuncture session.

Results:

The study started on June 19, 2026. At the time of manuscript submission, recruitment and data collection are ongoing, with 11 of the planned 15 participants enrolled. Study findings will be reported separately and are not presented in this protocol article.

Conclusions:

This pilot study will provide information on the feasibility, safety, and practical implementation of a brief nurse-led auricular acupuncture intervention in acute psychiatric inpatient care. The findings will inform refinement of the intervention and study procedures, selection of outcomes, and the design of a future larger-scale controlled trial. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07476300 and Swiss National Clinical Trial Portal (NCT05715190)