Psychological treatment of self‐injury among adolescents

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Abstract
Self‐injury is a dangerous and pervasive behavior problem among adolescents. Clinical trials testing the effectiveness of psychological treatments for this behavior problem among adolescents are lacking; however, several treatments have shown promise, such as those focused on teaching emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills. The authors provide a case illustration of the use of dialectical behavior therapy, which is one of the most promising treatments for adolescent self‐injury. They then discuss several important considerations in the treatment of self‐injury, such as the use of strategies to increase treatment participation and the assessment of self‐injury and related target behaviors over the course of treatment to determine its effectiveness and to manage risk of self‐injury. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol: In Session 63: 1081–1089, 2007.