Suitability for psychoanalytic psychotherapy: validation of the Dynamic Assessment Interview (DAI).

Objective: To examine the predictive validity of a particular interview and rating scale of patient suitability for psychoanalytic psychotherapy: The Dynamic Assessment Interview (DAI) scale.

Method: Seventy-four psychiatric out-patients were interviewed with the DAI and the associations between DAI-scores and measures of outcome and of therapeutic alliance were investigated.

Results: Small to moderate correlations were found between the DAI suitability score and outcome (0.06-0.46) and between DAI suitability score and early rated alliance (0.14-0.45). The predictive value of the DAI-score was limited although on a par with the alliance measures used in the study. No other pretherapy predictor variable investigated was found significantly to predict outcome.

Conclusion: The predictive power of the DAI measure was limited, a result, which is in agreement with results from former studies on suitability.