The Intersession Process in Psychotherapy for Anorexia Nervosa: Characteristics and Relation to Outcome

Abstract

Findings confirm an overall relation between ISP and treatment outcome. In outpatient treatment in AN, patients with a less successful course seem to be more preoccupied with therapy and therapist between sessions. For the ISP facet "applying therapeutic learning," findings point to an optimal range dependent on treatment phase. Growth curve modeling is required to describe the nonlinear trajectories of ISP facets.

Daily dynamic assessment and modelling of intersession processes in ambulatory psychotherapy: A proof of concept study

“…At the day-to-day level, we found negative treatmentrelated emotions to have a damping function in the network model, decreasing the occurrence of other processes. This damping influence is in in alignment with previous findings stating that negative treatment-related emotions predicted unfavourable treatment outcomes (Hartmann et al, 2016).…”

“…ISP have been operationalized and can be measured for a specific period between two sessions using the "Intersession Experience Questionnaire." Patients' positive ISP have been linked to a better therapy outcome in various studies (Schröder, Wiseman, & Orlinsky, 2009) and were found to be predictive of therapy outcome if measured weekly before a therapy session (Hartmann, Orlinsky, Weber, Sandholz, & Zeeck, 2010;Zeeck et al, 2016).…”

“…Most of the previous studies have assessed the intersession process only retrospectively, using cross-sectional designs. One notable exception is a multilevel analysis of weekly assessments in a large dataset conducted by (Hartmann et al, 2016).…”

Therapeutic agency, in‐session behavior, and patient–therapist interaction

“…It is noteworthy that most of the associations between therapy process measures and therapeutic agency were found for the TAI subscale on therapy‐related processing . This finding is in line with research on inter‐session‐processes which have been linked to positive therapy process and outcome (Hartmann et al, ). It also draws attention to the work of Mackrill (), who pointed out that patients’ agency is cross‐contextual and extends beyond the actual therapy session.…”

Sudden gains in the outpatient treatment of anorexia nervosa: A process‐outcome study

“…In RCTs, treatment outcomes are compared after the end of treatment on a group level, an approach, which largely ignores outcome variation between individuals (Collins & Sayer, ). However, there has been a greater emerging interest in the processes of change in AN, with researchers finding that factors relating to how patients process and use treatment between sessions is related to treatment outcomes (Hartmann et al, ; Zeeck et al, ). It may be further argued that focusing on the processes of change will help to determine when the majority of symptom change is taking place (Kazdin & Nock, ).…”