Treatment of Childhood Emotion Dysregulation in Inpatient and Residential Settings.

Abstract

Children hospitalized in inpatient and residential treatment facilities often present with severe emotion dysregulation, which is the result of a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses. Emotion dysregulation is not a diagnosis but is a common but inconsistently described set of symptoms and behaviors. With no agreed upon way of measuring emotion dysregulation, the authors summarize the existing contemporary treatment focusing on proxy measures of emotion dysregulation in inpatient and residential settings. Interventions are summarized and categorized into individual- and systems-level interventions in addressing aggressive behaviors. Going forward, dysregulation will need to be operationalized in a standard way.