Perceived Psychotherapist's Empathy and Therapy Motivation as Determinants of Long-Term Therapy Success-Results of a Cohort Study of Short Term Psychodynamic Inpatient Psychotherapy.

Frank Vitinius,Holger Pfaff,Christian Albus,Stephanie Tieden,Martin Hellmich,Oliver Ommen

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00660

Abstract

Objective: Outcome predictors and determinants for treatment outcome of inpatient psychotherapy will be assessed in a follow-up-study. Sociodemographic factors and the level of depressiveness at admission, the perceived psychotherapist's empathy rated by patients and the therapy motivation as possible moderators of treatment outcome (reduction of depressive symptoms) are analyzed.Methods: In a cohort study, the outcome of inpatient multimodal psychotherapy was examined with Beck-Depression-Inventory (BDI) at admission (T1), discharge (T2) and at follow-up (1–3 years after treatment) (T3). Inclusion criteria were: Inpatient psychotherapy between 2007 and 2010 with a duration of at least 1 week and complete data set. The influence on therapy success of (1) sociodemographic factors, (2) the perceived psychotherapist's empathy rated by patients using the Consultation and Relational Empathy Measure (CARE), and (3) the therapy motivation of the patients rated by therapists are examined by means of correlation analysis, distribution comparisons and subsequently logistic regression.Results: Ninety-two (64 females, average age 39 yrs.) of 182 eligible patients participated in the follow-up survey. Duration of inpatient psychotherapy lasted 8.7 weeks ± 3.6 [min. 1, max. 33 weeks]. The perceived psychotherapist's empathy, therapy motivation, education level and depression at baseline had a significant impact on therapy success. Gender, age, and partnership were not significant. The length between discharge and follow-up had no influence on the results. Based on these variables a multiple logistic regression explained 42% of the variation (goodness-of-fit).Conclusion: Due to the shown relevance of the psychotherapist's empathy perceived by patients and the therapy motivation of patients for therapy success, both factors should be considered already at the beginning of the therapy. Consequently, they should be recognized in the context of postgraduate training and education.

Highlights

The effectiveness of inpatient psychotherapy which in most cases is short-term psychotherapy has already been demonstrated in various studies in psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic acute and rehabilitation clinics with different outcomes [1,2,3,4,5,6].numerous follow-up studies showed positive long-term effects of inpatient psychotherapy [5, 7,8,9,10].In recent years, predictors have been identified in various studies for the treatment success of psychotherapy
The present study aims to determine predictors and determinants for therapy success in inpatient psychotherapy measured by reduction of depressiveness
Our study demonstrates that perceived empathy reveals a high significant predictor for the therapy success of multimodal inpatient psychotherapy: The higher the perceived empathy the better the therapy success

Summary

Introduction

The effectiveness of inpatient psychotherapy which in most cases is short-term psychotherapy has already been demonstrated in various studies in psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic acute and rehabilitation clinics with different outcomes [1,2,3,4,5,6].numerous follow-up studies (catamnesis studies) showed positive long-term effects of inpatient psychotherapy [5, 7,8,9,10].In recent years, predictors have been identified in various studies for the treatment success of psychotherapy. The effectiveness of inpatient psychotherapy which in most cases is short-term psychotherapy has already been demonstrated in various studies in psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic acute and rehabilitation clinics with different outcomes [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Numerous follow-up studies (catamnesis studies) showed positive long-term effects of inpatient psychotherapy [5, 7,8,9,10]. Predictors have been identified in various studies for the treatment success of psychotherapy. Sociodemographic as well as disease and therapy-related factors could be identified as possible moderators of the therapy success. Lambert and Barley [11] summarized the research on therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy outcome. In their research factors as empathy and the therapeutic relationship correlated more highly with outcome than specialized treatment interventions

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion