Patient assemble a support system, which may be composed of family members, friends, significant others and health care providers (52). Members of the supportive team receive psychoeducation about BPD and are taught how to respond to the patient in a manner that reinforces the new behavioral skills. The next component of treatment involves psychoeducation for the patients, who are taught to identify the thoughts and emotions that contribute to problematic behavior. The next component consists of emotion management skills training, including strategies such as distancing, communicating and challenging thoughts. The final component consists of behavioral management skills such as goal-Psychiatr Clin North Am. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 September 1.Matusiewicz et al.Pagesetting, sleep hygiene, and avoiding self-damaging behavior. STEPPS assigns homework that includes daily monitoring of emotional intensity and skill use.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSTEPPS has been evaluated in three RCTs, in which outpatients with BPD were assigned to either TAU or a combination of STEPPS+TAU, and with consistent results across studies (53, 54, 55). Compared to TAU, STEPPS+TAU is associated with greater improvements in BPD symptom severity, negative affectivity, trait impulsivity and global functioning, with gains maintained over a one-year follow-up. However, STEPPS does not appear to reduce frequency of non-suicidal self-injury or suicide attempts, nor does it reduce inpatient hospitalizations or emergency room visits. STEPPS also has been piloted sample of incarcerated women with BPD (n = 12; 56). From pre- to post-treatment, patients showed improvements in BPD symptom severity, negative affectivity and depression. Suicide attempts and acts of non-suicidal self-injury occurred too infrequently to identify a potential treatment effect. Taken together, STEPPS appears to reduce symptoms and symptomatic get AZD-8835 behaviors when used as adjunctive treatment, and there is preliminary evidence that it may be effective as a stand-alone treatment. In addition, findings highlight the feasibility of implementing STEPPS in a range of clinical settings. Like STEPPS, Emotion Regulation Group Treatment (ERGT) is a brief, manualized skillsbased group, developed to reduce non-suicidal self-injury among women with BPD (57). ERGT is based on the premise that individuals with BPD lack basic emotion regulation skills, which leads to self-damaging behavior in an effort to reduce strong negative affect. ERGT draws on an acceptance-based model, which defines emotion regulation as control over behavior while distressed, rather than control over the experience of emotions. This model highlights the functional aspects of emotional experience and the problems associated with attempts to avoid and control emotions (57; 58). Accordingly, ERGT focuses on understanding the functions of behaviors and emotions, reducing avoidant responses to emotion, and promoting emotional acceptance in the service of goal-directed behavior. The treatment consists of 14 weekly sessions. In the initial session, patients identify the functions of non-suicidal self-injury. Subsequent sessions include psychoeducation about the functions of emotions and the benefits of emotional willingness and skills training to enhance emotional clarity and order CPI-455 awareness and promote adaptive emotion regulation skills. The final sessions are used to discuss values and plan for.Patient assemble a support system, which may be composed of family members, friends, significant others and health care providers (52). Members of the supportive team receive psychoeducation about BPD and are taught how to respond to the patient in a manner that reinforces the new behavioral skills. The next component of treatment involves psychoeducation for the patients, who are taught to identify the thoughts and emotions that contribute to problematic behavior. The next component consists of emotion management skills training, including strategies such as distancing, communicating and challenging thoughts. The final component consists of behavioral management skills such as goal-Psychiatr Clin North Am. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 September 1.Matusiewicz et al.Pagesetting, sleep hygiene, and avoiding self-damaging behavior. STEPPS assigns homework that includes daily monitoring of emotional intensity and skill use.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptSTEPPS has been evaluated in three RCTs, in which outpatients with BPD were assigned to either TAU or a combination of STEPPS+TAU, and with consistent results across studies (53, 54, 55). Compared to TAU, STEPPS+TAU is associated with greater improvements in BPD symptom severity, negative affectivity, trait impulsivity and global functioning, with gains maintained over a one-year follow-up. However, STEPPS does not appear to reduce frequency of non-suicidal self-injury or suicide attempts, nor does it reduce inpatient hospitalizations or emergency room visits. STEPPS also has been piloted sample of incarcerated women with BPD (n = 12; 56). From pre- to post-treatment, patients showed improvements in BPD symptom severity, negative affectivity and depression. Suicide attempts and acts of non-suicidal self-injury occurred too infrequently to identify a potential treatment effect. Taken together, STEPPS appears to reduce symptoms and symptomatic behaviors when used as adjunctive treatment, and there is preliminary evidence that it may be effective as a stand-alone treatment. In addition, findings highlight the feasibility of implementing STEPPS in a range of clinical settings. Like STEPPS, Emotion Regulation Group Treatment (ERGT) is a brief, manualized skillsbased group, developed to reduce non-suicidal self-injury among women with BPD (57). ERGT is based on the premise that individuals with BPD lack basic emotion regulation skills, which leads to self-damaging behavior in an effort to reduce strong negative affect. ERGT draws on an acceptance-based model, which defines emotion regulation as control over behavior while distressed, rather than control over the experience of emotions. This model highlights the functional aspects of emotional experience and the problems associated with attempts to avoid and control emotions (57; 58). Accordingly, ERGT focuses on understanding the functions of behaviors and emotions, reducing avoidant responses to emotion, and promoting emotional acceptance in the service of goal-directed behavior. The treatment consists of 14 weekly sessions. In the initial session, patients identify the functions of non-suicidal self-injury. Subsequent sessions include psychoeducation about the functions of emotions and the benefits of emotional willingness and skills training to enhance emotional clarity and awareness and promote adaptive emotion regulation skills. The final sessions are used to discuss values and plan for.
