Two Treatment Methods Compared for Borderline Personality Disorder

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has a well-deserved place among evidence-based psychotherapies for patients with emotional dysregulation — largely because controlled studies have favored DBT over usual treatment for reducing suicide attempts, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations for patients with borderline personality disorder who show self-injurious behavior.

These researchers randomized 180 patients with self-injurious behavior and borderline personality disorder to 1 year of outpatient DBT or a manual-based “general psychiatric management program” using the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Practice Guidelines. Experienced clinicians provided the care. APA Practice Guidelines psychiatric management, based on psychody…