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Mental pain intensity and tolerance as predictors of psychotherapy process and outcome
Author(s) -
GrossmanGiron Ariella,
Becker Gideon,
Kivity Yogev,
Shalev Shani,
Tzur Bitan Dana
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.23085
Subject(s) - distress , psychology , mental health , mental distress , emotional distress , clinical psychology , outcome (game theory) , pain tolerance , psychotherapist , psychiatry , medicine , threshold of pain , anxiety , mathematics , mathematical economics
Background The extensive reliance on symptoms for the study of psychotherapy is often criticized. In this study we examined whether the subjective sense of mental pain predicts psychotherapy process and outcome, above and beyond the effect of symptomatic distress. Methods Outpatients ( n = 53) treated in a psychiatric hospital completed measures of mental pain intensity and tolerance, symptomatic distress, and session climate at pretreatment and posttreatment. Multilevel modeling was utilized to assess the predictive effect of mental pain, while controlling baseline symptomatic distress. Results Patients with high mental pain at baseline showed significant reductions in distress, while patients with low mental pain showed no significant improvement. Moreover, low mental pain and high mental pain tolerance predicted decreases in session smoothness. Conclusions Mental pain can serve as a predictive marker for psychotherapy process and outcome, and complement the reliance on symptomatic distress in psychotherapy research.