Patient characteristics, patient experience from psychotherapy, and psychotherapy effectiveness

Abstract

In the presented research, questions were asked concerning the associations (1) between patients' characteristics and their experiences from psychotherapy as well as (2) between experiences from psychotherapy and the patients' assessment of its effectiveness. The variables were measured using a catamnestic survey, which was sent to 1,210 former patients of a psychotherapy center. We received answers from 276 people (55% women and 45% men), most of them aged under 30. Data were analyzed by means of structural models and correspondence analysis. The results indicate that: (1) variables group around good and bad psychotherapeutic relationship; two models were built -one for a good relationship and the other for a bad relationship with the psychotherapist; (2) the subgroups of patients reporting improvement, deterioration, and no change differ in terms of characteristics before psychotherapy and in terms of experiences from psychotherapy.