Dialectical behavior therapy for clients with binge‐eating disorder or bulimia nervosa and borderline personality disorder

OBJECTIVE: This treatment development study provides summary data for standard Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with minimal adaptation for 8 women with binge-eating disorder (BED) (5) or bulimia nervosa (BN) (3) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). METHOD: DBT involved 6 months of weekly skills group, individual DBT, therapist consultation team meeting, and 24-hour telephone coaching. Assessments were conducted at pre-, post-treatment, and 6-months follow-up and utilized standardized clinical interviews including the Eating Disorders Examination (EDE), Personality Disorders Exam, and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. RESULTS: From pre- to post-treatment, effect sizes for objective binge eating, total EDE scores and global adjustment were large and for number of non-eating disorder axis I disorders and for suicidal behavior and self-injury were medium. From pre- to 6-months follow-up, effect sizes were large for all these outcomes. CONCLUSION: This provides promising pilot data for larger studies utilizing DBT for BED or BN and BPD.