IntroductionDialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive psycho-social treatment developed by Marsha Linehan and originally designed for persons meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT is considered as a standard evidence based treatment for suicidal BPD patients in most international guidelines. Although its effectiveness has been proved in multiple studies across different patient populations but almost all the research was conducted in North American or European countries. The current study was the first trial to apply DBT in Egypt with a different language and culture than where the treatment was originally developed.ObjectivesAssessment of incidence of suicidal attempts and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) among a sample of Egyptian BPD patients enrolled in an outpatient DBT program.AimThe aim of the current study was to estimate impact of comprehensive DBT on suicidal attempts and NSSI when applied to Egyptian BPD patients.MethodsTwenty-five BPD patients, 4 males and 21 females, were included in a comprehensive outpatient DBT program for one year and incidence of suicidal attempts and NSSI were calculated.ResultsFive patients only attempted suicide again with an incidence of 20% and a mean of one attempt/patient. Seven patients attempted NSSI with an incidence of 28%, an overall 22 incidents and a mean of 3 incidents/patient.ConclusionAlthough this was the first time to apply DBT in an Egyptian population, DBT proved to be an effective psycho-therapeutic intervention for suicidal BPD patients across regardless of different language or culture.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

IntroductionDialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive psychosocial treatment developed by Marsha Linehan and originally designed for persons meeting criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). DBT contains four treatment modes that are deigned to address core problems of BPD. The four modes of treatment include individual therapy, skills training group, phone consultation and therapist consultation meeting.The skills training group is organized as 120-150 minutes group, weekly, for 6 months. Four modules are taught across the six months period which are core mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness.Although psychotherapeutic interventions are always the first line of treatment for BPD in most guidelines but adherence to therapy have been always a major problem.ObjectivesAssessment of patient's compliance to DBT skills training group.AimThe aim of the current study was to estimate drop out rate in the first Egyptian DBT skills training group over one year.MethodsFifteen female patients diagnosed with BPD were recruited to DBT skills training over one year. Drop out rates were calculated based on the rule of being out of therapy if the patient misses four consecutive sessions for no obvious reason.ResultsThree patients only out of 15 dropped out of treatment (20%). Twelve patients could complete the full six month DBT skills training or are still currently engaged in treatment.ConclusionAlthough this was the first time to teach DBT skills in Arabic, DBT skills training group among Egyptian female patients with BPD had a high compliance rates.

IntroductionIn the past few years, social media has gained a high popularity as a dynamic and interactive computer-mediated communication tools. Although it has become a part of everyday life for most of our clients, yet we did not have the opportunity to study its impact on compliance to therapy.ObjectiveAssessment of impact of parallel social media group to dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training group in a sample of Egyptian patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD).AimThe aim of the current study was to estimate impact of parallel social media group on compliance to DBT skills training group and its adverse events.MethodsPatients with BPD enrolled to an outpatient comprehensive DBT program in Alexandria were assigned either to group (A) skills training, where a parallel Facebook group was crated aiming at increasing to compliance to the original group, or group (B) skills training alone and dropout rates were calculated based on completion of 6 months full skills training. We considered patients out of the group if they missed 4 sessions in a raw.ResultsTwo patients of 15 patients who joined group (A) missed four consecutive sessions with a dropout rate of 13%, whereas group (B) showed 43% drop out rate as 10 out of 23 patients did not complete the group. The difference was statistically significant. We reported only one privacy issue dealt with it immediately.ConclusionUtilization of social media group could lead to increase patient compliance to DBT skills training group.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Introduction Although around 50% of individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) suffer from trauma-related disorders, literature lacks a specific treatment for these serious co-occurring problems. Dialectical Behavior Therapy Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE) is a recent protocol developed by Melanie Harned, integrating (PE) into standard (DBT). The protocol has showed promising results in treating comorbid PTSD in BPD patients. The current study, however, was the first trial to apply DBT PE protocol in Egypt. Objectives To investigate the efficacy of (DBT PE) protocol in reducing trauma-related symptoms (psychological trauma symptoms and trauma-related cognitions) among Egyptian women with BPD. Methods Sixteen women diagnosed with BPD and trauma-related symptoms, were recruited from “DBT clinic”, a private outpatient clinic in Alexandria, Egypt and randomly divided into equivalent (Therapeutic & Control) groups. The therapeutic group received DBT PE protocol while the control group received Treatment as usual (TAU). Participants were assessed pre and post-intervention using: The short version of the Borderline Symptom list, The Trauma Symptom Checklist-40, and The Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory. The therapeutic group started treatment with standard comprehensive DBT concurrently with DBT PE protocol (14 individual sessions, 120 minutes/ week), according to readiness criteria suggested by the treatment developer. Results Patients who received DBT PE protocol showed significantly lower degrees of psychological trauma symptoms and trauma-related cognitions compared to patients in control group. Conclusions Despite being applied for the first time in Egypt, DBT PE protocol proved to be an effective intervention in reducing trauma-related symptoms in a sample of Egyptian BPD patients without any need to modify the original protocol. Disclosure No significant relationships.