Reduksjon av unngåelsesatferd og innleggelser grunnet villet egenskade etter Basal Eksponeringsterapi
Sammanfattning
Basal Exposure Therapy (BET) is an inpatient treatment modality developed for patients with severe and complex mental disorders.
Characteristics of the patient group are psychotic symptoms, dissociation, eating disorders and emotional instability in combination with repeated self-harm
and suicide attempts. In this retrospective study based on electronic patient records, we compared the number of admissions related to deliberate self-harm in both somatic and psychiatric hospitals 12 months before and after BET for 27 patients. Fewer patients were admitted to hospitals with deliberate self-harm after BET (12 of 27) compared to before BET (22 of 27), a 45 % reduction. The number of hospitalizations associated with deliberate self-harm decreased from 123 to 47, a 62 % reduction. This decline occurred in parallel with a reduction in the patients’ experiential avoidance as measured with the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ). A low number of admissions related to deliberate self-harm after BET was associated with a reduction in AAQ scores from admission to discharge as well as with low AAQ scores at discharge. The fi ndings are consistent with the view that treatment approaches emphasizing acceptance of
unwanted private events may be viable alternatives to a focus on symptom reduction in this patient group.