DBT Skills Groups for Veterans at High Risk for Suicide Attempt

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

DBT-SG: Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Group (DBT-SG) in addition to VHA treatment as usual. Group is 24 weekly sessions teaching skills in emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness.

VHA treatment as usual: VHA treatment as usual for Veterans at risk for suicide attempt

Study summary

Veteran suicide death is a national crisis. Risk factors include emotion dysregulation, which occurs across mental health disorders. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based suicide intervention that targets emotion dysregulation but is resource-intensive and not widely available at VHA. A more efficient evidence-based DBT Skills Group (DBT-SG) is associated with reduced suicidal ideation and emotion dysregulation and likely more feasible to implement at VHA. This is a randomized controlled trial to test whether DBT-SG in addition to VHA treatment-as-usual, compared to only VHA treatment-as-usual, reduces Veteran emotion dysregulation.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Change in Emotion dysregulation — Up to18 month follow-up
  Emotion dysregulation will be assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, a self-report measure. The scale ranges 36-180 with a higher score indicating greater difficulties in emotion regulation.

Trial sites (5)

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