title: The association between retrospective outcome evaluations and pre-post-treatment changes in psychodynamic group-psychotherapy.
abstract: In the present study of 203 patients in psychodynamic group psychotherapy, we explore associations between patient and therapist global retrospective outcome evaluations (ROE), and pre-post-treatment changes on the Symptom Check List 90 Revised (SCL-90-R) and non-symptomatic focus of therapy. There were no significant associations between ROE, diagnoses and demographic variables, and pre-treatment SCL-90-R associations were negligible (less than 4% of overlapping variance). SCL-90-R subscale improvement expressed as residual gain score explained the overall largest percent of variance in both patients and therapists (44% and 25%, respectively) when compared with raw difference scores (32% and 18%), and percent reduction from baseline (34% and 23%). Moreover, ROE/end-state adjustment associations were substantial (42% and 24%). Therapists' evaluation of change showed the strongest association with improvement in non-symptomatic focus of therapy, while patients' evaluation had the strongest association with improvement in SCL-Depression. It is concluded that retrospective evaluations reflect changes related to treatment. However, unexplained variance may be independent of symptomatic state, and associated with personality factors or domains not captured by standard questionnaires.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. H.H.Jensen@pubhealth.ku.dk
authors.forename: Hans Henrik
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Erik Lykke
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Mortensen
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lotz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D010551:Personality; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012942:Social Sciences; D016896:Treatment Outcome