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The relational communication of sixteen dropout versus sixteen continuation sessions of solution-focused therapy was studied using two different coding schemes. On the Topic Initiation/Topic Following coding scheme (Tracey, 1986) no differences were found between dropout and continuation sessions, whereas the Family-Relational Communication Control Coding Scheme (Heatherington and Friedlander, 1987) yielded a number of significant findings. Both in 'successful' and in 'unsuccessful' dropout sessions, therapeutic interaction was found to be more conflictive than in continuation cases, with clients showing more domineering behaviour in dropout than in continuation sessions. Markovian and lag sequential analysis are used to clarify some of these findings, and their implications are discussed.

In therapeutic conversations, questions can be considered as interventions in their own right. This study is a cross-cultural replication of Grant (Journal of Systemic Therapies, 2012, 31, 2, 21) study on the effects of different types of questions on various clinically relevant variables. A total of 204 students of a Spanish university described a real-life problem that they wanted to solve and were then randomly assigned to either a solution-focused or a problem-focused questions condition. Before and after answering the questions, they completed a set of measures that assessed positive and negative affect, self-efficacy, and goal attainment. Solution-focused questions produced a significantly greater increase in self-efficacy, goal approach, and action steps than problem-focused questions, and a significantly greater decrease in negative affect, providing further empirical support to solution-focused practices.

ARTÍCULO DE INVESTIGACIÓNREV CHIL NEURO-PSIQUIAT 2010; 48 (1): 20-28 L os somatomorfos son pacientes que presentan distintas dolencias físicas, sin una causa de naturaleza orgánica, sino más bien de carácter psicosocial 1 . Son pacientes definidos como "hiperfrecuentadores" y/o "policonsultantes", ya que asisten y utilizan los servicios de salud en forma frecuente, gastando una importante cantidad del tiempo de trabajo del cuerpo médico y recursos económicos significativos 2,3 . Estos pueden llegar a constituir entre un 60% a un 80% de la demanda total de pacientes que asisten a estos centros 4 . Cuando los pacientes presentan quejas que persisten más allá de 6 meses, se les diagnóstica como trastorno somatomorfo 5,6 . Se calcula, a nivel internacional, que la prevalencia de este trastorno en la atención primaria está entre el 15 y el 22% 7,8 .