TY - JOUR
T1 - Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills for Families of Individuals With Behavioral Disorders
T2 - Initial Feasibility and Outcomes
AU - Wilks, Chelsey R.
AU - Valenstein-Mah, Helen
AU - Tran, Han
AU - King, Alexandra M.M.
AU - Lungu, Anita
AU - Linehan, Marsha M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Family members of individuals with behavioral disorders are a valuable source of logistical and emotional support for patients. Family members may take on tremendous financial and/or psychological responsibility to care for their loved ones, which can result in poor psychological outcomes for the family and, in turn, impede the recovery of the patient. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training is an effective treatment that has been utilized with numerous populations, including family members of individuals with behavioral problems, and has shown efficacy in improving various interpersonal outcomes; however, no study has examined feasibility and outcomes of delivering all four unabridged DBT skills modules to this population. Twenty participants attended weekly DBT skills classes for 6 months, where they acquired skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. There were significant pre-post improvements for emotion dysregulation, stress reactivity, and various interpersonal outcomes; there were no significant changes in depression or anxiety. These results suggest that DBT skills may be effective at improving broad clinical domains in a sample of family members of individuals with behavioral problems. This research is the first step in demonstrating that DBT skills might benefit family members of patients with heterogeneous mental health problems and, therefore, fits in to the field's growing interest in cost-effective transdiagnostic interventions.
AB - Family members of individuals with behavioral disorders are a valuable source of logistical and emotional support for patients. Family members may take on tremendous financial and/or psychological responsibility to care for their loved ones, which can result in poor psychological outcomes for the family and, in turn, impede the recovery of the patient. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training is an effective treatment that has been utilized with numerous populations, including family members of individuals with behavioral problems, and has shown efficacy in improving various interpersonal outcomes; however, no study has examined feasibility and outcomes of delivering all four unabridged DBT skills modules to this population. Twenty participants attended weekly DBT skills classes for 6 months, where they acquired skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. There were significant pre-post improvements for emotion dysregulation, stress reactivity, and various interpersonal outcomes; there were no significant changes in depression or anxiety. These results suggest that DBT skills may be effective at improving broad clinical domains in a sample of family members of individuals with behavioral problems. This research is the first step in demonstrating that DBT skills might benefit family members of patients with heterogeneous mental health problems and, therefore, fits in to the field's growing interest in cost-effective transdiagnostic interventions.
KW - caretaking
KW - dialectical behavior therapy
KW - families
KW - skills only
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85001752357&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85001752357&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cbpra.2016.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.cbpra.2016.06.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85001752357
SN - 1077-7229
VL - 24
SP - 288
EP - 295
JO - Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
JF - Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
IS - 3
ER -