Citation

Berk MS, Rathus J, Kessler M, Clarke S, Chick C, Shen H, Llewellyn T. Cogn. Behav. Pract. 2022; 29(2): 348-366.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cbpra.2020.10.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Improving family functioning is a critical treatment target for youth at risk for suicide. The present study focused on the development and pilot testing of a brief, parent-only, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)-based intervention with N = 10 sets of parents of youth with a suicide attempt or nonsuicidal self-injury within the past 3 months. Youth received treatment as usual; however, they did not receive any treatment as part of the study.

RESULTS showed that parents who received the intervention reported reductions in parent self-reported depressive symptoms, emotion dysregulation, caregiver strain, psychiatric symptom distress and interpersonal sensitivity, from baseline to 6-month follow-up. Youth also showed decreases in total self-harm from baseline to 6-month follow-up. These results provide support for further testing of the DBT-based parenting intervention, both as a stand-alone treatment and as an adjunct to enhance the effectiveness of standard DBT for adolescents. This article provides a detailed description of the parenting protocol, as well as a case example. © 2022 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent; human; adolescents; suicide; female; male; self-harm; pilot study; depression; suicide attempt; juvenile; emotional disorder; caregiver burden; mental disease; controlled study; distress syndrome; clinical article; automutilation; child parent relation; intervention study; follow up; dialectical behavior therapy; Article; DBT; parenting; patient-reported outcome