The Application of Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Abstract

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was founded by Linehan and her colleagues which was initially created for treating borderline personality disorder (BPD). It is recognized that it’s an effective way to cope with emotion dysregulation and it has now been put into wider use in clinical practices, dealing with eating disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, drug abuse, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder etc. The exploration into its neurobiological mechanisms has made some progress which suggests that the application of DBT has broad prospects which cannot be ignored. There are issues emerge during the development of DBT, such as the cultural adaptation of DBT and it novel application in different domains. It is worth mentioning that DBT can also be considered as a daily practice that benefits people’s mental health in everyday life. Research and trials on the application of DBT is still in progress. The present review mainly outlines applications of DBT in clinical practices and analyzes the possibility of culturally adapted DBT and the online delivery of DBT. Directions of future studies are also discussed.