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The association between retrospective outcome evaluations and pre‐post‐treatment changes in psychodynamic group‐psychotherapy
Author(s) -
JENSEN HANS HENRIK,
MORTENSEN ERIK LYKKE,
LOTZ MARTIN
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9450
pISSN - 0036-5564
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9450.2008.00656.x
Subject(s) - psychology , psychodynamics , retrospective cohort study , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , psychodynamic psychotherapy , association (psychology) , analysis of variance , psychotherapist , medicine , economics , macroeconomics
In the present study of 203 patients in psychodynamic group psychotherapy, we explore associations between patient and therapist global retrospective outcome evaluations (ROE), and pre‐post‐treatment changes on the Symptom Check List 90 Revised (SCL‐90‐R) and non‐symptomatic focus of therapy. There were no significant associations between ROE, diagnoses and demographic variables, and pre‐treatment SCL‐90‐R associations were negligible (less than 4% of overlapping variance). SCL‐90‐R subscale improvement expressed as residual gain score explained the overall largest percent of variance in both patients and therapists (44% and 25%, respectively) when compared with raw difference scores (32% and 18%), and percent reduction from baseline (34% and 23%). Moreover, ROE/end‐state adjustment associations were substantial (42% and 24%). Therapists’ evaluation of change showed the strongest association with improvement in non‐symptomatic focus of therapy, while patients’ evaluation had the strongest association with improvement in SCL‐Depression. It is concluded that retrospective evaluations reflect changes related to treatment. However, unexplained variance may be independent of symptomatic state, and associated with personality factors or domains not captured by standard questionnaires.