20 Weeks DBT Group Skills Training Study

• Deliberate Self-harm Inventory (DSHI; Gratz, 2001) [ Time Frame: baseline; 10 weeks; 20 weeks; 3 month follow up ] [ Designated as safety issue: Yes ]
  Self-report measure assessing self-harm and suicidal behaviour
  
  

• Treatment History Interview (THI-2; Linehan & Heard, 1987) [ Time Frame: baseline; 10 weeks; 20 weeks; 3 month follow up ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Assesses for emergency and psychiatric hospitalizations
  
  
• Barett Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11; Patton et al., 1995) [ Time Frame: Baseline; 10 weeks; 20 weeks; 3 months follow up ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Self-report measure assessing for impulsive behaviour
  
  
• The State-trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; Spielberger, Krasner & Solomon, 1988) [ Time Frame: Baseline; 10 weeks; 20 weeks; 3 months Follow up ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Self-report assessing for anger expressions
  
  
• The Borderline Evaluation of Severity over time Scale (BEST; Phfolm & Bloom, 1997) [ Time Frame: Baseline; 10 weeks; 20 weeks; 3 months Follow up ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  self-report measure assessing for severity of BPD symptoms
  
  
• The Symptom Checklist 90 - Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis, 1983) [ Time Frame: Baseline; 10 weeks; 20 weeks; 3 months Follow up ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Self-report measure assessing for various psychiatric symptoms
  
  

The study will consist of a single-blind, two-arm randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of DBT skills group offered as an adjunct to treatment as usual compared to a wait list control plus treatment as usual. The continuation of treatment as usual in both arms is permitted for two reasons. First, it would be unethical to assign suicidal patients to a wait list condition that prohibited involvement in ongoing treatment. Second, the proposed design enables us to address the question of the additive effect of the DBT skills group intervention. Subjects will be randomized to receive 20 weeks of DBT group skills training plus treatment as usual, or to a wait list control plus treatment as usual. Clinical effectiveness outcomes will be assessed at baseline, at 10 weeks, at 20 weeks and at 8 months follow-up. DBT skills training is a manualized intervention developed by Linehan (1993). Key skills from the modules described in Miller, Rathus, and Linehan (2006) will serve as the basis of the DBT skills group, delivered in a psychoeducational format over the course of weekly two-hour sessions. The skills group covers five modules: mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and dialectics.