Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe psychiatric health problem with reputation of being difficult to deal with and to treat. Significant others (SOs) of patients with BPD show higher levels of psychological distress compared with the general population. Strengthening the coping strategies of SOs plays an important role in the recovery of the patient. Support and education for SOs is important, both for SOs themselves and for the patients recovery.

Research around support and education for SOs is of great importance not only for SOs and patients, but also for psychiatric staff, in order to offer help and support, for the whole family.

The aim was to describe significant others’ experiences of dialectical behaviour therapy-family skills training (DBT-FST), their life situation before and after DBT-FST, and measurement of their levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms.

The study had a descriptive mixed method design. Data were collected with free text questionnaires (n = 44), group interviews (n = 53) and the HAD scale (n = 52) and analysed by qualitative content analysis and descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results show that life before DBT-FST was a struggle. DBT-FST gave hope for the future and provided strategies, helpful in daily life. For the subgroup without symptoms of anxiety and depression before DBT-FST, anxiety increased significantly. For the subgroup with symptoms of anxiety and depression the symptoms decreased significantly. This indicates, despite increased anxiety for one group, that DBT-FST is a beneficial intervention and most beneficial for those with the highest anxiety and depressive symptoms.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.