Background: Several quantitative studies support the effectiveness of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) psychosocial skills training group component for adolescents with impulse-control disorder and/or emotional dysregulation. However, qualitative research to assess this psychotherapeutic tool in the adolescent population is sparse. This study aims to examine the subjective experience of adolescents with behavioral issues who have completed DBT skills training group, as well as using this experience to extract hypotheses regarding its usefulness which can then be verified at a later time by means of quantitative instruments. Methods: We developed a qualitative study by using focus groups with adolescents (N = 20) whose diagnosis includes symptoms such as behavior disorder, impulse-control disorder and/or emotional dysregulation, and good informants, who have completed DBT skills training. Three focus groups were created. Results: The subjective experience of adolescents who have completed a DBT skills training group is collected in four main categories: experience of illness, motivation for therapy, experience of therapy and results of the therapy. Conclusions: Adolescents with behavioral problems assess their participation in the DBT skills training group positively, even recommending its usefulness to healthy population. Beyond learning skills, they emphasize the intrapsychic changes (as improvement in reflective activity) that they objectify after the group experience.

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Se presenta el caso clínico de un adolescente de 17 años de edad sin antecedentes psiquiátricos previos y con buen nivel funcional académico y social. De manera brusca comienza a presentar alteraciones de la conducta, clínica psicótica positiva, sintomatología que impresiona de negativa y una escasa conciencia de enfermedad. Durante el ingreso hospitalario y a través de las pruebas de imagen aparece el hallazgo de una neoplasia cerebral, gangliogliomaintraventricular derecho. A pesar del tratamiento neuroléptico y corticoideo la evolución del paciente fue negativa, manteniéndose la clínica productiva y presentando alteraciones de la memoria, estados confusionales y crisis convulsivas durante los ingresos posteriores. Tras meses de evolución se decide llevar a cabo la resección total del tumor, transcurriendo la intervención y postoperatorio sin complicaciones. El curso posterior de la patología permaneció inalterable, con aumento de la clínica anteriormente descrita a la que se suma un agravamiento de los comportamientos de aislamiento y abandono de actividades vitales. Durante este progreso se ensayaron varios neurolépticos hasta llegar al tratamiento con clozapina.