Good Psychiatric Management and Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Anne K.I. Sonley, J.D., M.D., FRCPC, is Lecturer at the University of Toronto, and Psychiatrist at the Borderline Personality Disorders Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Good Psychiatric Management and Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Clinician's Guide to Integration and Stepped Care presents a unique approach to treating borderline personality disorder (BPD). The approach, known as good psychiatric management (GPM), requires minimal training, is flexible, and is feasible for generalists to learn and use. However, the guide also draws upon the essential concepts and tools of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which is considered a gold standard for BPD treatment. This combination of GPM, which is easy to master, and the fundamental techniques of DBT constitutes an accessible, useful, and evidence-based model that clinicians can use to deliver quality care. The guide is organized around basic skills, condensing current scientific research and explaining how GPM is used--with different patient populations, in conjunction with different modalities, by different professions, and in different treatment settings. Given BPD's morbidity and mortality and the limited efficacy of standard treatment, nonspecialists have been understandably hesitant to treat these patients. Moreover, newer and promising treatment options require a significant amount of training, supervision, and time to learn and implement.