Influence of childhood adversities and defense styles on the 1-year follow-up of psychosomatic- psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment

Abstract

The current study explores the connection between reported sexual abuse and physical maltreatment during childhood and immature defense styles as affecting the 1-year follow-up of inpatients who had undergone psychodynamic group therapy. Early traumatization was assessed using a structured patient interview and the defense styles by means of the questionnaire on defense styles. Reduction in psychological distress and improvement in health-related quality of life formed the parameters against which success of treatment was measured. At the 1-year follow-up, the entire sample showed a distinct improvement. The effect sizes for health-related quality of life ranged from 0.82 to 1.21, and that for psychological distress was 0.81. Patients with early traumatization were significantly more impaired both before treatment and at follow-up; yet they profited from treatment to an extent comparable to patients without early traumatization. The quality of life among patients with highly immature defense styles compared with those with fewer immature defense styles was significantly lower, especially before the start of treatment; however, the former profited from treatment to a significantly higher degree.