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Clinicians need guidance in selecting schizophrenic patients for individual psychodynamic psychotherapy. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether a 17-item questionnaire (APPP) for quantification of suitability for psychotherapy could predict continuance, adherence and outcome from individual dynamic psychotherapy with patients with schizophrenic psychoses. Therapists rated 72 first-episode patients with schizophrenic psychoses in the initial interview. The scores were then correlated to the course of therapy and change in symptoms. APPP was tested to have good psychometric characteristics and had a satisfactory interrater reliability ((ICC,2)=0.70), when four raters scored eight videotaped interviews with eight different patients. The scale scores were highly correlated to "therapeutic alliance" measured by the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) and the Active Engagement Scale (AES). APPP suitability gave a good early prediction of adherence to therapy (continued in therapy at least 12 months and a satisfactory number of sessions), but had no predictive value of symptomatic improvement or improved social function after 1 year.

Calculations of pH in modified Krebs solutions by inserting PCO2 and total-CO2 in the Henderson-Hasselbalch (H.-H.) equation are obvious as the equation originally served for this purpose. An exact calculation of the relation between pH and PCO2 is complicated as the concentration of bicarbonate, the dissociation constant and the solubility of CO2 change. Furthermore, the dissociation constant in the H.-H. equation is constant only if activities are used in the equation instead of stoichiometric concentrations. We therefore investigated the influence of different carbon dioxide tensions and bicarbonate concentrations on directly measured pH of organ baths aerated with mass-spectrometric analyzed O2-CO2 gases. For reference precision buffers were used. The measured pH values differed distinctly from calculated pH values in the acidic and alkaline parts of the pH interval investigated (6.57-8.15). Measurements of actual pH with proper calibration standards therefore seem mandatory.

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