Efficacy of high-intensity versus low-intensity psychoanalytically oriented long-term treatments and determinants of outcome: individual participant data Meta-analysis of Long-term Analytic treatment Studies (MeLAS).

Introduction: Long-term psychodynamic/psychoanalytic psychotherapy (LTPP) is a prevalent treatment option for complex mental disorders. Yet, little is known about the role of treatment intensity in LTPP. We present a study protocol for a systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis aggregating and analysing individual data from randomised and quasi-experimental trials by meta-analysis.

[The OPD conflict questionnaire].

Unlabelled: The OPD conflict questionnaire Background: To date, no self-report measure is available to assess modes of coping with unconscious conflicts according to Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD). The OPD conflict questionnaire (OPD-CQ) developed here thus intends to close this gap.

Methods: To select the items for the OPD-CQ, expert ratings and psychometric criteria based on a sample of 534 persons were combined.

[Structural change as an outcome paradigm in psychodynamic psychotherapy - results of the PAL-Study (long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy study].

Objective: Psychodynamic psychotherapies have proved to lead to relevant symptomatic improvement. An unresolved question, however, is what amount of psychodynamic change can be expected beyond symptom relief. For theoretical and methodological reasons rooted in the psychodynamic approach, this question has been difficult to answer until now.

Patterns of interpersonal problems and their improvement in depressive and anxious patients treated with psychoanalytic therapy.

Interpersonal problems were studied in 121 patients treated with psychoanalytic therapy using the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems. Four characteristic subtypes were identified, which differed in the quality and flexibility of their interpersonal behavior. Independent of the predominant type of interpersonal problems, the psychotherapy treatment led to strong decreases in interpersonal distress and increases in interpersonal differentiation.

Structural change as a predictor of long-term follow-up outcome.

Based on data from psychoanalytic long-term psychotherapies, the predictive value of three measures of pre-post change for retrospective patient assessments of outcome at 1-year and 3-year follow-up was investigated. Pre-post changes were measured using the Global Severity Index (GSI), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP) total score, and the Heidelberg Structural Change Scale (HSCS). In line with psychoanalytic theory, it was assumed that structural changes cause especially persistent changes and would, therefore, be most suitable to predict the follow-up criterion.

[Results of psychoanalytic long-term therapy in specific diagnostic groups: improvement in symptoms and interpersonal relationships].

Objectives: In the present paper, data from four German studies on the efficacy of outpatient psychoanalytic long-term psychotherapy were examined for symptom reduction (SCL-90-R) and reduction of interpersonal problems (IIP-D). Specifically, the research question addressed the efficacy of long-term therapy in specific diagnostic groups and was was compared with that of a parallel group who underwent shorter-term psychodynamic therapy.

Methods: Data from four German studies addressing the efficacy of outpatient psychoanalytic long-term therapy were collected.

[Pain and quality of life following palliative radiotherapy of bone metastases].

Background And Purpose: Palliative irradiation is used to provide pain relief and to increase quality of life. Most studies exclude patients with advanced cancer disease and, therefore, a positive selection results. This prospective clinical study investigates the effect of palliative radiotherapy on pain and quality of life of patients with painful bone metastases.

[Operationalized psychodynamic diagnostic (OPD)--potential for quality assurance].

Objectives: Psychotherapy is subjected to the legal conditions of quality assurance(QA). Does operationalized psychodynamic diagnostics (OPD) contribute substantially to this?

Methods: We investigated the application of OPD in outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy, inpatient treatment, rehabilitation, and legal assessment.

Results: Psychodynamic diagnostics, treatment plan, and evaluation by means of the OPD and Heidelberg Structural Change Scale (HSCS) may be comprehensibly described for quality assurance (QA) of outpatient and inpatient psychotherapy.

Somatization revisited: diagnosis and perceived causes of common mental disorders.

The assessment of somatoform disorders is complicated by persistent theoretical and practical questions of classification and assessment. Critical rethinking of professional concepts of somatization suggests the value of complementary assessment of patients' illness explanatory models of somatoform and other common mental disorders. We undertook this prospective study to assess medically unexplained somatic symptoms and their patient-perceived causes of illness and to show how patients' explanatory models relate to professional diagnoses of common mental disorders and how they may predict the short-term course of illness.

[Results of psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy in relation to diagnosis].

Therapy outcome is analysed according to the main diagnoses in a 5 years' sample of psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy (n=461) and controlled in a 6-9 months follow-up (n=312). Therapy effects, as measured in a pre-post comparison of the patients' self-rating, are generally good and especially noticeable for affective and anxiety disorders, whereas the effects for somatoform disorders are relatively low. The opposite tendencies are seen in follow-up, i.

Do interpersonal behavior and emotional experience change in the course of successful long-term psychoanalytic therapies?

The way in which patients behave toward others is considered to be a correlate of mental health and thus of successful psychotherapy. Until now, research regarding the extent to which this assumption is justified has produced contradictory findings. On the basis of 2 definitions of normal interpersonal behavior (Benjamin, 1993; Crits-Christoph, Demorest, Muenz, & Baranackie, 1994), the authors studied 10 patients undergoing psychoanalytic therapy to determine whether changes in their descriptions of interpersonal relationships were associated with a decrease in self-reported symptoms and interpersonal problems during the first 2 years of treatment.