Intensified, Inpatient Adaptation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Patients receive 12 months of outpatient treatment as specified in the DBT manual (Linehan, 2002) in one of the participating regional psychiatric centers of Rivierduinen. The treatment is according to protocol and combines weekly individual cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy sessions with the primary therapist, weekly skills- training groups, if needed consultation and weekly consultation meetings for trainers and therapists.

"The intervention to be studied, inpatient DBT, consists of an inpatient program of 12 weeks. The department provides accommodation for 9 patients. Patients are admitted 5 days a week at the department Oost, part of the Jelgersma centre for Personality Disorders. Staff is only present in daytime. During the weekends the patients stay at home.~The therapy consists of DBT skills training (Linehan, 1996), individual psychotherapy (Linehan, 2002), crisis consultation if needed, and weekly meetings of the consultation team for all trainers and therapists for one hour. Staff also receives supervision twice-weekly."