الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Couple therapy continues to gain in stature as a vital component of mental health services. The linkage of relationship distress to disruption of individual emotional and physical well-being emphasizes the importance of improving and extending empirically based strategies for treating couple distress.Dialectical Behavior Therapy “DBT” is an empirically-validated, comprehensive psychosocial treatment for severely dysfunctional women who meet criteria for BPD, adding a DBT couple intervention to ongoing individual DBT has resulted in substantial individual and relationship improvements.Our theory was that we can help distressed couples by improving their emotional difficulties using dialectical behavioral therapy.
The aim of the present work was:To evaluate the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy ”DBT” in outpatients couples with emotional dysregulation recruited from psychiatric clinics.The study was conducted in two private practice outpatient clinics in Alexandria including 20 couples visiting the above mentioned settings. Twenty couples presented with marital distress and at least one of them suffers from emotional dysregulation assigned at their convenience or according to immediate availability of treatment slot to a couple DBT group.Socio-demographic, Medical, psychiatric and drug history were collected. Arabic version of DERS was used for assessment of emotional dysregulation before and after intervention. Dyadic Adjustment Scale was used for assessment of marital adjustment.The collected data were analyzed using Student t-test, Paired t-test, Paired t-test and Mann Whitney test.Results of this study revealed that: The male partners were slightly older than the female partners. All husbands were working, while 50% of the wives were working.>-The majority of our couples (85%) were living in urban places. Most of them (65%) had a family income 5000-10000. The duration of the relationship ranges from 1 year to 16 years with a mean of 6.25 ± 4.22.<br- 3 males had miscellaneous medical problems.- Regarding psychiatric illness: 3 males and 2 females had depression both males and females showing improvement and stable on treatment. One male fulfilled criteria for narcissistic personality disorder and 6 females with BPDs.- 3 males had positive family history of psychiatric illness.• Comparison between the male and female partners regarding DERS and DAS scores pre and post treatment: In the pre-treatment assessment the mean DAS score of the male partners was statistically significant higher than that of female partners, while there was no significant difference between them in the post treatment assessment.In the pre-treatment assessment all DAS subscales(except for Affectional Expression subscale)were statistically significant higher in male partners, while In the post treatment assessment there was no significant difference between them in dyadic satisfaction, while the mean of female partners was higher in dyadic consensus and cohesion.- In the pretreatment assessment the mean female partners DERS score was statistically significant higher than the mean of the male partners, while there was no significant difference between them in the post treatment assessment. In the pretreatment assessment female partners scores significantly higher than males in (Non acceptance) subscale and (STRATEGIES) subscale, while males scores significantly higher in (IMPULSE) subscale. In the post treatment assessment female partners scores significantly higher than males in (Non acceptance) subscale, while male’s scores significantly higher in (AWARNESS) and (STRATEGIES) subscales.>• Regarding the effectiveness of CDBT - Both male and female partners showed significant improvement in marital adjustment (significant elevation in DAS score), and female partners showed a significant higher change amplitude than male partners (more increase in DAS score)All DAS subscales showed significant improvement (increase in score) except Affectional Expression subscale Both male and female partners showed significant improvement in emotional regulation (significant decrease in DERS score) and female partners showed a significant higher change amplitude than male partners (more decrease in DERS score)>- Female partners showed significant improvement in all DERS subscales except for (GOALS) subscale (significant decrease), while male partners showed significant improvement in (IMPULSE), (AWARNESS), (STRATEGIES) and (CLARITY) subscales There was a negative correlation between DERS and DAS which was significant in pre assessment of female partners. There was a statistical significant positive correlation bet percentage change of female DERS and percentage change of female DAS, Also there was a positive (near significant) correlation bet percentage change of male DERS and percentage change of female DAS There was a strong significant positive correlation between the percentage changes (CLARITY) and (STRATEGIES) subscales with the percentage change of overall DAS in females.