[Change of illness representations and quality of life during the course of a psychotherapeutic-psychosomatic treatment].

Objectives: This article concerns the change of illness representations during the course of psychotherapeutic-psychosomatic treatment. It studies the predictive value of pretreatment illness representations and how they change with respect to quality of life.

Methods: In a pre-post measurement design, data were collected from 199 patients at pretreatment and from 172 patients at posttreatment. The instruments used were the Illness Perception Questionnaire and the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Questionnaire. Patients were on average 41 years old and had spent on average 44 days in the hospital. 76 % of them were women.

Results: Patients reported a significant enhancement of their symptoms and a reduction of perceived consequences. The illness representations of timeline and perceived control predicted altogether 11 % of the increase in quality of life. This increase also corresponds to a reduction of perceived consequences and an increase of control.

Conclusions: Results point toward the importance of illness representations for patients regarding psychosomatic treatment. Therefore, consideration of illness representations during therapeutic interventions could increase quality of life.