Group DBT Skills Training for First Episode Psychosis

Group Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Skills Training for Individuals With First Episode Psychosis: a Feasibility Study

Overview

Key facts that identify this study and show where it stands today.

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT07777315
Lead Sponsor: Centre for Addiction and Mental HealthOTHER
Overall Status: Not yet recruiting
Study Type: Interventional
Phase: Not Applicable
Enrollment: 32Estimated
Last Update Posted: Aug 20, 2026Actual
Start Date: Sep 15, 2026Estimated
Primary Completion Date: Sep 30, 2027Estimated
Completion Date: Dec 30, 2027Estimated

Description

What the study is about and why it is being run, in the researchers' own words.

Official Title: Group Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Skills Training for Individuals With First Episode Psychosis: a Feasibility Study
Brief Summary: Psychosis is a serious mental health condition that can affect how a person thinks, feels, and functions in daily life, often making it harder to maintain relationships, continue education, or work. Even with standard treatment, many people continue to experience emotional distress, depression, anxiety, and difficulty coping with strong emotions. These challenges can worsen recovery, increase the risk of substance use and suicidal behaviour, and place a significant burden on individuals, families, and the healthcare system.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a skills-based psychological treatment that helps people manage emotions, tolerate distress, and improve relationships. Although DBT has been effective in other mental health conditions, it has not been well studied in people with first-episode psychosis.

This study will evaluate an 8-week group DBT skills training adapted for individuals with first-episode psychosis. The study aims to assess whether the program is acceptable and feasible to deliver, and whether it may improve emotion regulation, mood, resilience, and functioning. Findings will inform whether a larger clinical trial of this intervention should be conducted.

Conditions

The medical conditions and diseases this study investigates.

Psychosis

Interventions

The treatments and procedures being evaluated in this study.

group DBT

Participation

Who can join this study and the criteria used to decide.

Ages Eligible for Study: Child (0-17)Adult (18-64)
Sexes Eligible for Study: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
Eligibility Criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

Be 14-35 years old.

All gender identities are eligible to participate.

Being competent as demonstrated by comprehension of the study procedures, risks, benefits and their rights as a volunteer in the research study and willing to consent to study participation.

Meets criteria for a psychotic spectrum disorder as determined by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (e.g., schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, delusional disorder, other specified schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or other unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder), or bipolar disorder with psychotic features, and is within 3 years of their initial diagnosis.

Exclusion Criteria:

Diagnosis of intellectual disability previously documented in the patient chart.

Acute suicidality requiring immediate life-saving intervention (i.e., inpatient psychiatric care).

Receiving any additional structured psychotherapy interventions during the study period.

Design

How the study is designed and how its participant groups are organized.

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: N/A
Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)

Contacts

The people to reach with questions about this study or how to join it.

Omair HusainContact

omair.husain@camh.ca416-535-8501 ext. 36467

Locations

Where the study is run and whether each site is currently recruiting.

No locations

There are no locations for this study.

Collaborators

The organizations and people involved in this study.

Lead Sponsor: Centre for Addiction and Mental HealthOTHER

Similar Studies

Other registered studies that closely resemble this one.

Detailed Description

Despite evidence that individuals with psychotic disorders experience marked emotion dysregulation, impulsivity and elevated suicide risk, they have largely been excluded from clinical trials evaluating DBT. Nevertheless, emerging pilot studies support the feasibility and potential efficacy of brief DBT-informed skills group in individuals with psychosis, with participants reporting high satisfaction and improvements in understanding and managing emotions, suicidality, and interpersonal functioning. However, this literature remains preliminary and underdeveloped, and no studies have evaluated group DBT skills intervention specifically for individuals with first-episode psychosis.

Aim 1: To evaluate the acceptability of the group DBT skills training invention and the feasibility of conducting a fully powered randomized controlled trial (RCT) of in young men with psychosis.

Aim 2: To assess the preliminary efficacy of group DBT skills training in improving emotion regulation, resilience, and functioning and reducing, mood and anxiety and substance use, in a single-arm exploratory clinical trial.

This study will provide evidence of the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a group DBT skills training for young men with first-episode psychosis. Findings will advance understanding of emotion regulation as a treatment target in psychosis and inform the development of larger controlled trials evaluating emotion-focused interventions in early psychosis care. The intervention could represent a scalable and practical psychosocial treatment to address emotional difficulties that are common but often under-treated in psychosis.

This study employing qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the group DBT skills training intervention and test its feasibility, and acceptability in individuals with psychosis. A single arm trial where DBT skills group delivered over 8-weeks, will be conducted. Thirty-two participants are planned to be enrolled in the trial. Participants will continue with their standard outpatient care during the trial. Outcome measures will be completed at study entry and post-treatment. For the qualitative component of the study, 15 post-intervention semi-structured interviews will be conducted.