Preliminary Data on an Acceptance-Based Emotion Regulation Group Intervention for Deliberate Self-Harm Among Women With Borderline Personality Disorder☆
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were obtained through referrals by clinicians at McLean Hospital and in private practice in the greater Boston area, as well as self-referrals by potential clients in response to advertisements for an “emotion regulation skills group for women with self-harm” posted at McLean Hospital and on two Web sites. All provided written informed consent. Potential participants were screened by a doctoral-level trainee or postdoctoral fellow trained in the administration of the assessment
Results
Before conducting analyses, a square root transformation was used to transform the positively skewed and kurtotic DSHI frequency scores.
A series of t-tests and chi-square analyses were conducted on demographic and clinical characteristic variables to determine equivalence across conditions. Results indicate no significant between-group differences on any of these variables. Furthermore, a series of one-way (group treatment + TAU vs. TAU waitlist) ANOVAs were conducted on pretreatment scores on
Discussion
Results suggest that this emotion regulation group intervention has positive effects on emotion dysregulation, experiential avoidance, and self-harm behavior, as well as BPD-specific symptoms and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Not only were the observed treatment effects statistically significant, many were clinically significant as well. Moreover, the treatment group reached normative levels of functioning on measures of emotion dysregulation, experiential avoidance, and
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This research was previously presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy in November, 2004. This research was supported by the Psychosocial Fellowship of McLean Hospital, awarded to the first author. The first author wishes to thank Matthew Tull and Melanie Harned for their help in conducting the assessment interviews, as well as Matthew Tull and Liz Roemer for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this manuscript.