Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), as an important representative of the " third wave" of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), has been paid more attention. Since the publication of the treatment manual in 1993, DBT has been widely spread in several treatment settings, including outpatient, community, and inpatient settings, and has been applied to the diagnosis and treatment of various mental disorders. In recent years, more and more studies have proved that DBT has a clear effect on a variety of mental disorders and psychological and behavioral problems, especially the clinical problems related to emotion regulation. This article summarizes and evaluates the effectiveness of DBT in the treatment of mental disorders and discusses the limitations of the current research and the future development direction.