Suicidality, parasuicidality, and self-injurious behavior in female patients with symptoms of borderline disorder

Abstract

The suicide rate among patients with borderline disorder is five to ten percent. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed by Marsha Linehan for the treatment of women with borderline personality disorder (diagnosed according to DSM criteria) who are either chronically suicidal and/or self-injurious. A number of modifications to standard DBT were made for work with adolescents in order to adapt the treatment to the adolescent target group. Our working group revised and adapted Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) for German-speaking countries. The present paper reports the first results of the DBT-A pilot study with twelve adolescents.