Gruppen- oder Einzelpsychotherapie? - Untersuchungen zur differenziellen Indikationsstellung bei den psychoanalytisch begründeten Verfahren in der Richtlinien-Psychotherapie. Ergebnisse aus dem MARS-P

Abstract

Summary Group or Individual Psychotherapy? - Investigations Regarding the Differential Indication According to the German Guidelines for Psychotherapy. Results from the MARS Project The study investigates the factors influencing the differential indication for group psychotherapy in outpatient psychodynamic therapy within the German Guideline psychotherapy. In the MARS research project initial and extensions requests were evaluated within the expert review process of the German Guideline psychotherapy. Overall, 109 group therapeutic requests were compared to a control group of 365 requests for individual psychotherapy. The analysis was based on the contained data to socio-demographic, clinical and biographic information of the patients, base information of the therapists and the evaluation data of the expert. Within the clinical variables the two groups do not differ essentially. Thus in the group therapy appears a bigger portion of male patients, the patients tend to be older and to live in more difficult social conditions. Group therapists differ in significant ways from individual therapists. Among group therapists exists a high percentage of male therapists, furthermore mostly medical therapists seem to offer group therapy. Clinical variables do not seem to play a decisive role in determining the indication. The indication for group therapy appears to be rather influenced by the patients' social variables; another assumed factor is that therapists tend to balance the gender relation within the group. The results show that group therapy is not a "popular" method, neither on the patients' nor on the therapists' side. Intended promotion of group therapy is not only a matter of financial incentives; the concentration upon this point falls short and leads to a questionable "political indication".