[Anxiety and depression in intake interviews of East and West German psychotherapy patients].
OBJECTIVE
The present paper describes a study on the intake interview narratives of psychotherapy patients with assisted content analysis methods.


METHODS
47 psycho-dynamic diagnostic interviews of patients suffering from depression or anxiety disorders were analysed using a Gottschalk-Gleser technique with the Dresdner Angstwörterbuch (DAW) as well as with the Affektives Diktionär Ulm (ADU).


RESULTS
Comparisons between different subgroups of this sample were made: Anxiety vs. depression patients, East Germans (Magdeburg) vs. West Germans (Düsseldorf) and men vs. women. The comparisons showed that feelings of anxiety were important in all subgroups. Depressed patients not only spoke more often about depressed feelings in comparison with the other subgroups, but also seemed more able to express emotions of other kinds. Among the differences according to the diagnostic dichotomy there were also significant results which demonstrated the influence of cultural background and sex of the interviewees on the contents of the intake interviews.


CONCLUSIONS
The results confirm our hypothesis that the psychotherapist-patient-interaction sequences, which are the basis of diagnostic categorization, consist of elements specific for the disorders under study as well as elements specific for sex and culture (east vs. west). Some content analysis markers of these elements are identified in our study.
Berth
Hendrik
H
Lehrstuhl für Medizinische Psychologie, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus der Technischen Universität Dresden.
Krause
Christian
C
Wittig
Diana
D
Frommer
Jörg
J
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012931:Social Environment