Emotion regulation as mediator of treatment outcome in therapy for deliberate self-harm.

This study presents the outcomes of mediator analyses as part of a randomized controlled trial of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for young people who engage in deliberate self-harm (DSH). The study involved 90 people, aged 15-35 years, who were randomly assigned to CBT in addition to treatment as usual or to treatment as usual only. The findings showed that changes in DSH were partially mediated by changes in emotion-regulation difficulties, particularly difficulties with impulse control and goal-directed behaviours.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for deliberate self-harm.

Patients who engage in deliberate self-harm (DSH) form a heterogeneous population. There is a need for psychotherapeutic interventions that give therapists the flexibility to tailor the treatment plan to the needs of an individual patient. To detect essential ingredients for treatment, three different cognitive-behavioral theories of DSH will be reviewed: (1) the cognitive-behavioral theory of Linehan (1993a), (2) the cognitive theory of Berk, Henriques, Warman, Brown, and Beck (2004), and (3) the cognitive-behavioral theory of Rudd, Joiner, and Rajab (2001).