Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a revolutionary treatment first developed by psychologist and researcher Marsha Linehan as a treatment for borderline personality disorder, which is among the most recalcitrant of psychological disorders. Because it proved effective in clinical trials with this population, psychologists have begun to adapt it to treat other disorders, and both the professional and lay communities have begun to take note. The New York Times featured an article on DBT in July 2004, and the treatment has been the focus of many professional workshops and seminars. DBT has been used to treat addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and other conditions. Recent research has yielded data confirming the effectiveness of DBT as a treatment for a range of mental health problems.

So how is DBT different from other forms of psychotherapy? It recognizes that much of human suffering comes from conflicting and competing demands, wants, and drives. You want to be thin, but you have an urge to binge eat; you want to have friends, but you fear social events; you dread a troubled future, but you lack the impetus to change your present course. This push-pull can leave you feeling as if you’re on a tour of a not-so-fun funhouse and that you’ve checked all sense of meaning and purpose at its door. DBT provides tools and strategies to resolve these psychological and emotional catch-22’s and the distress that they can cause. It includes training in the areas of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, tolerance and acceptance, and emotional regulation. Continuing our tradition of making the most current psychotherapies available to the self-help reader, New Harbinger has begun to publish books that offer programs based on DBT. These include:

Depressed and Anxious

Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life

Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Private Practice: A Practical and Comprehensive Guide

This book for mental health professionals, which details the use of DBT by therapists working in private practice, is by Thomas Marra, Ph.D., author of Depressed and Anxious.

A new book from Scott Spradlin, MA, author of Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life, and Amy Tibbits, LCSW, this workbook for people with borderline personality disorder uses DBT techniques to help readers learn to control their emotional extremes.

A Few Research Findings on DBT

A 1991 study focused on chronically suicidal females with borderline personality disorder (BPD) who were being treated in an outpatient setting. Subjects received either twelve months of individual and group DBT or treatment as usual (TAU). Those who received DBT showed significantly fewer parasuicidal (self-destructive) acts, greater rate of treatment completion, and fewer days of hospitalization compared to those who received TAU (Linehan et al.).

A 1999 study focused on women with BPD and substance use disorder in an outpatient setting. Patients received either one year of individual and group DBT or TAU. Those who received DBT showed a significantly greater reduction in substance use throughout treatment and at a sixteen-month follow-up compared to those who underwent TAU (Linehan et al.).

A 2001 study considered the effect of DBT on women with binge eating disorder. Participants received either twenty weeks of group DBT or a wait-list control condition. Eighty-nine percent of those who underwent DBT stopped binge eating compared to 12.5 percent who received the control condition (Telch, Agras, and Linehan).