Feasibility of offering family domains therapy alongside DBT
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A feasibility study investigating the provision of a Family Domains Therapy (FDT) intervention for the parents/carers of self-harming young people undergoing Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) in North Wales
IRAS ID
186533
Contact name
Michaela Swales
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bangor University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Self-harm includes any act of intentional self-poisoning or self-injury regardless of motivation and includes acts with suicidal intent and those without. Self-harm in adolescence is a major public health problem. The behaviour occurs in about 10% of adolescents, often repeated and is the strongest predictor of suicide. Suicide is the second cause of death in adolescence (Patton, 2009). Self-harm exacts a distressing toll on young people and their families and is expensive in terms of health and social costs. Young people with repetitive self-harm often fail to achieve in education and go on to have persistent mental health problems.
Recent literature shows that a modified version of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) that includes parents in the treatment has the potential to significantly reduce self-harming behaviour in adolescents (Mehlum et al, 2014). Thus, said intervention required young people and their parents/carers to participate together in a group intervention, which might in itself be a barrier to taking part in the intervention for young people who experience high levels of conflict in their relationship with their parents/carers.
This feasibility study will examine the acceptability of providing a new kind of family intervention to the parents/carers of young people undergoing DBT – Family Domains Therapy (FDT). FDT was developed by Prof Jonathan Hill in conjunction with local BCUHB employed family therapists, who will deliver FDT in this study. If the FDT intervention proves acceptable to parents then we plan to proceed to a RCT that will examine whether the addition of FDT to DBT augments the clinical outcomes of young people receiving DBT. In preparation for a future RCT, therefore, we intend to use several measures of the young-person’s symptoms, coping strategies and problem solving ability pre and post-DBT to assess the practicalities and acceptability of collecting these data in this population.
REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
16/WA/0025
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jan 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion