Potential Benefits of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents Receiving Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder Traits: Implications for Psychiatric Nurses

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) involves a complex constellation of symptoms including suicidal threats, suicidal gestures, and self-harming behaviors. There are limited effective treatment options for adolescent patients with BDP or BDP traits in the inpatient hospital setting. This paper discusses BPD and BPD traits in adolescents, examines challenges faced by inpatient nurses, summarizes evidence supporting Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) for adolescents with BPD traits, and proposes specific inpatient setting programming to address the needs of this population. This paper suggests that DBT may be successfully implemented to optimize outcomes. DBT has typically been used in adult outpatient settings. However, research suggests that the integration of DBT strategies in inpatient settings serving adolescents could facilitate effective outcomes. Nurses in particular are critical members of the hospital treatment paradigm. Outcomes could be enhanced if nurses have a better understanding of DBT and if they received training to enable them to contribute to DBP programming.