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Long‐term effects of transference interpretations: comparing results from a quasi‐experimental and a naturalistic long‐term follow‐up study of brief dynamic psychotherapy
Author(s) -
Høglend P.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1996.tb10633.x
Subject(s) - psychology , term (time) , psychotherapist , naturalistic observation , naturalism , selection (genetic algorithm) , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , computer science , epistemology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence
Herglend P. Long‐term effects of transference interpretations: comparing results from a quasi‐experimental and a naturalistic long‐term follow‐up study of brief dynamic psychotherapy. Acta Psychiatr Scand 1996: 93: 205–211. © Munksgaard 1996. A follow‐up study, using a quasi‐experimental non‐equivalent groups comparison design, the so‐called regression discontinuity design, reported a negative long‐term effect of a high frequency of transference interpretations given to patients in brief dynamic psychotherapy who had been deemed highly suitable for such treatment. The major threat to internal validity of the findings was the possibility that the patients who were evaluated as highly suitable for dynamic psychotherapy might be the ones with the naturally worst outcomes, independent of therapy technique (selection maturation). Data from a similar naturalistic study with no quasi‐experimental manipulation of the treatment technique revealed, however, that highly suitable and relatively less suitable patients had similar outcomes. This makes selection maturation a less plausible confound of the (negative) treatment effect estimated in the quasi experimental study. A high frequency of transference interpretations in brief dynamic psychotherapy seems to be causally related to less favourable long‐term dynamic change.