Efficacy of dialectical behavior therapy in women veterans with borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Twenty women veterans who met criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) were randomly assigned to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) or to treatment as usual (TAU) for 6 months. Compared with patients in TAU, those in DBT reported significantly greater decreases in suicidal ideation, hopelessness, depression, and anger expression. In addition, only patients in DBT demonstrated significant decreases in number of parasuicidal acts, anger experienced but not expressed, and dissociation, and a strong trend on number of hospitalizations, although treatment group differences were not statistically significant on these variables. Patients in both conditions reported significant decreases in depressive symptoms and in number of BPD criterion behavior patterns, but no decrease in anxiety. Results of this pilot study suggest that DBT can be provided effectively independent of the treatment's developer, and that larger efficacy and effectiveness studies are warranted.