Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk to develop more pervasive emotion-dysregulation and in conjunction with that they also show more maladaptive coping compared to non-autistic people. Sensory differences and impaired interoceptive body-awareness may influence emotion-dysregulation. Maladaptive coping is reflected by a variety of harmful behaviours, particularly strong social avoidance, rumination, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, disordered eating, substance abuse, agitation, non-suicidal-self-injury (NSSI), and suicidal ideation and behaviour. For a part of these individuals, treatment as usual does not have any effect at all, causing a vicious circle of isolation, demoralization, life-long psychiatric treatments, and crisis. DBT is an empirically supported psychotherapy to treat severe emotion-dysregulation. An effective inpatient treatment for adults with ASD and severe emotion-dysregulation is lacking, as well insight in the development of the process of self-regulation, particularly the role of sensory hyper- and hyposensitivity and interoceptive body-awareness. Therefore, an integrative, mostly inpatient treatment program based on DBT is developed and outcomes will be evaluated in the currently presented research. Standard DBT is used, adapted to adults with ASD, and augmented with a body-oriented DBT-skills training, because of their possible impairments of interoceptive body-awareness. Experiences of participants with the treatment program, the mechanisms and processes that hinder and advance the pathway to recovery will be studied, in order to make the treatment more tailored and effective for this target group.~The first aim is to quantify the effectiveness of integrative DBT in adults with ASD and difficult to treat severe emotion-dysregulation and maladaptive coping (primary outcome measure). The second aim is to determine the improvements over time in sensory hyper- and hyposensitivity, interoceptive body-awareness, cognitive and behavioural emotion-regulation, and well-being. Moreover, we will explore how (full and partial) responders, non-responders and deteriorators will differ with regard to autistic traits, PTSS-symptoms, sensory hyper- and hyposensitivity and interoceptive body-awareness. The third aim is to determine how qualitative findings regarding patients' experiences with integrative DBT enhance the deeper understanding of the quantitative clinical outcomes, in order to get insight in the process and sustainability of self-regulation, and to make the treatment more tailored and effective in the pathway to recovery.~A mixed-methods strategy consisting of three elements is executed:~A randomized, multiple-baseline single-case design with staggered baselines of 4, 6, or 8 weeks (randomized allocation) and daily measurements of emotion dysregulation.~A quasi-experimental design with 5 measurements with questionnaires at baseline (T0), start outpatient DBT pretreatment of 8 weeks (T1), start inpatient DBT of 40 weeks (T2), end inpatient DBT (T3), and end follow-up of 24 weeks (T4).~A qualitative study consisting of interviews with 30 participants.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk to develop more pervasive emotion-dysregulation. In this study experiences of adults with ASD and severe emotion dysregulation with Integrative Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and the mechanisms and processes that hinder and advance the pathway to recovery will be studied, in order to make the treatment more tailored and effective for this target group.