Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in a Community Mental Health Center Original Research Article

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.