Dialectical behaviour therapy for borderline personality disorder among adolescents and young adults: Pilot study, extending the research findings in new settings and cultures

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to investigate the feasibility and impact of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in a clinical outpatient setting. Eighteen clinicians were trained and supervised in using DBT. Twenty‐seven female patients were assessed on a number of variables before the treatment, as well as 5 and 12 months after the start of the DBT. Despite some barriers, DBT could be implemented successfully, and the professionals reported increased competence 1 year after the start of the therapy. Low treatment dropout rates suggested that DBT was well accepted by the patients. One year after the start of treatment, the patients reported significant decrease on most variables measuring psychological distress and number of parasuicidal behaviours. The study provides preliminary support for the feasibility and impact of DBT in the outpatient treatment of BPD in a cultural setting outside the United States.

Efficacy of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents in a Partial Hospitalization Program

“…Open trials of DBT‐A have provided some initial support for treating a number of presenting issues within several treatment settings. Researchers have reported statistically significant reductions of psychiatric symptoms, including anxiety and depression (Beckstead, Lambert, DuBose, & Linehan, ; Del Conte, Lenz, & Hollenbaugh, ), suicidal ideation (Hjalmarsson, Kaver, Perseius, Cederberg, & Ghaderi, ), and disordered eating (Salbach‐Andrae, Bohnekamp, Pfeiffer, Lehmkuhl, & Miller, ), with Cohen's d effect sizes ranging from medium to large. These studies have been integral in demonstrating important aspects of DBT‐A, such as the feasibility of transitioning treatment milieus with considerable fidelity and desired treatment effect (Katz, Cox, Gunasekara, & Miller, ; Perepletchikova et al, ), and also understanding the treatment components that function as mechanisms of therapeutic change (Lenz, Del Conte, Hollenbaugh, & Callendar, ).…”

The development and theoretical application of an implementation framework for dialectical behaviour therapy: a critical literature review

“…As seen in Table 2, nine papers collected retrospective ( [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]) and five papers ( [32][33][34][35][36]) collected prospective implementation data. There were 16 programme descriptions ( [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]) and 19 trial process analyses ( [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71]). The majority (N = 38) of papers were from the United States (US), and most implementations of DBT we...…”

“…In many cases the DBT consultation team seemed to undertake championing tasks through generating interest (e.g. [59]), establishing collaborations (e.g. [65]), offering expertise to other agencies (e.g.…”

“…In the US services need to ensure they receive sufficient referrals to remain viable and so coordination with external agencies is necessary [36]. There were five examples of coalitions facilitating implementation ( [14,42,54,55,59]). One research group suggested that training courses and merging consultation teams might foster coalitions [23] and there was an example of a service establishing two consultation teams: one service-led, the other interagency [45].…”

A Quality Improvement Project to Decrease the Length of Stay on a Psychiatric Adolescent Partial Hospital Program

“…DBT is a type of CBT that combines the focus on problem solving and change, with the inclusion of a dialectical worldview of acceptance of issues that cannot be changed. DBT also adds mindfulness and validation as a condition to act and react in a particular way to synthesize change and acceptance (Dimeff & Linehan, ; Hjalmarsson, Kåver, Perseius, Cederberg, & Ghaderi, ; Linehan, , ; Robins & Chapman, ) (see Table A1). The flexibility to synthesize this DBT worldview with CBT skills acquisition has made the treatment very useful in addressing the multitude of stressors seen in these multiproblem teens (Miller et al., ).…”