Results of a prognosis study of in vitro fertilization after brief psychotherapy

Abstract

During the last four years, our research has been focussed on prediction criteria for IVF after a Short Course of psychotherapy. Our study can be divided in two phases: In an earlier phase (up to 1990), prediction criteria were derived from "expert" rating, whereas in a later phase (from 1990 onwards) they were derived by self-rating of the patients. The predictions refer to changes in the patients' behaviour, affective state, mood and attitude (acronym: BAMA) towards their infertility. Our work is based on the hypothesis, that a perceivable change in BAMA and in how the patients relate to their wanting a child, represents the solution of the problem, which facilitates the consequential events of either pregnancy or acceptance of childlessness or else adoption. As a rule, the absence of such a change entails none of the consequential events. - We report on and discuss the results of the earlier, as well as the later phase and finally compare them as to how well they correlate with prediction and consequences. A marked correlation could be found between changes in BAMA and the occurrence of pregnancy or acceptance of childlessness in both phases of our study. Comparing the two phases (expert- vs. self-rating) on the accuracy of prediction, we could find almost identical results. Because of the easier and more economical application of self-rating we decided to continue with this method and to refine it for further research.