Therapeutic effects of brief hospitalization : the role of a therapeutic alliance.
Correlational data in this study suggest that a strong therapeutic alliance is associated with improvement during brief hospitalization. Two measures of alliance were used: patient-staff agreement on treatment goals and patient expectations of benefit from treatment. Greater patient-staff agreement at admission was associated with symptomatic improvement, independent of medication use; less use of immature defense mechanisms at discharge; and reduced risk of precipitous discharge. For a given level of symptoms, greater agreement was associated with lower doses of antipsychotics but higher doses of minor tranquilizers and antidepressants. Perception of the ward was associated with patients' expectation of benefit.
Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire.
P B
PB
Lieberman
S
S
VON Rehn
E
E
Dickie
B
B
Elliott
E
E
Egerter