Citation

Comtois KA, Elwood L, Holdcraft LC, Smith WR, Simpson TL. Cogn. Behav. Pract. 2007; 14(4): 406-414.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cbpra.2006.04.023

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has been shown to be effective in randomized controlled trials with women with borderline personality disorder and histories of chronic self-inflicted injury including suicide attempts. The present study is a pre-post replication of a comprehensive DBT program in a community mental health center for individuals who chronically injure themselves and/or have experienced multiple treatment failures. Twenty-four subjects were given the Treatment History Interview to obtain information regarding medically treated self-inflicted injuries and the use of crisis services. After 1 year of treatment, DBT showed a significant reduction in the number and severity of self-inflicted injuries, psychiatric-related emergency room visits, psychiatric inpatient admissions and days, and the number of crisis treatment systems engaged.

RESULTS are compared to benchmarks from 3 other clinical trials of DBT. While this pre-post comparison has threats to internal validity, it supports the feasibility of DBT when fully implemented in a community mental health clinic. © 2007.

Language: en

Keywords

adult; human; interview; clinical trial; article; comparative study; mental disease; controlled study; clinical article; automutilation; psychiatric department; priority journal; behavior therapy; emergency ward; mental health center; analytic method; treatment failure; validity; dialetical behavioral therapy