Effectiveness of Dialectical Behavior Therapy on Social Problem-Solving, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation, Impulsiveness, and Resilience in Suicide Attempts in Ilam Province, Iran

Introduction: Suicide attempt is one of the important problems of general world health. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy on social problem-solving, difficulty in emotion regulation, impulsiveness, and resilience in suicide attempts in Ilam Province, Iran. Materials & Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental design with experimental and control groups. The study population consisted of 457 people from Ilam province who committed suicide attempts. A sample of 40 subjects was selected and randomly assigned to two groups (20 experimental and 20 control). The pretest was performed on both groups. Then, the intervention was performed on the experimental group in 12 sessions (1 h), and the control group did not receive any intervention. After the intervention, a post-test was performed in two groups. The research tools included the D’Zurilla social problem-solving scale, Gratz & Roemer difficulties in emotion regulation scale, Barratt impulsiveness scale, and the Connor-Davidson resilience scale questionnaires. Moreover, multivariate covariance analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The results of the covariance analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between the post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups in the variables, including social problem-solving (F=430), emotional regulation difficulty (F=94.714), impulsiveness (F=72.404), and resilience (F=11.168), with all variables showing significance at P<0.001. Conclusion: The results indicate that dialectical behavior therapy can be used to increase social problem-solving skills and resilience, as well as to decrease difficulty in emotion regulation and impulsiveness in people who commit suicide attempts.