32
Views
3
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Australasian dialectical behaviour therapy pilot outcome study: effectiveness, utility and feasibility

&
Pages 313-318 | Published online: 16 Sep 2009
 

Abstract

Objectives: This paper aims to describe the outcome of 10 patients treated in a New Zealand pilot study of dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) for people with borderline personality disorder (BPD), and to ascertain the clinical utility and feasibility of implementing DBT into a standard New Zealand public mental health service.

Method: Patients had a clinical and an International Personality Disorder Examination diagnosis of BPD and received 6 months of standard DBT treatment. Rating scales used were the Millon Clinical Muliaxial Inventory, 3rd edition (MCMI-III) and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R), which were completed pre treatment and post treatment. Pre–post treatment data were completed on inpatient resource usage. Qualitative patient interviews were conducted post treatment.

Results: There were statistically significant improvements in functioning on 10 of the 24 MCMI-III subscales (p < 0.03 to p < 0.0008), including notably the borderline personality subscale (p < 0.01) and the anxiety (p < 0.05) and depression (p < 0.001) subscales. There was a statistically significant improvement on the Global Severity Index of the SCL-90-R (p < 0.001) and on 10 of the 12 SCL-90-R scales (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001). The hospital bed days used decreased from 0.57 days per patient per month to 0.2 days per patient per month.

Conclusions: These preliminary results document the clinical effectiveness of DBT. Dialectical behaviour therapy has practical and clinical utility of relevance to Australasian public mental health services. A DBT service can be successfully implemented within existing public mental health services.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

There are no offers available at the current time.

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.