Identifying clinical cases among patients assigned to psychoanalytic treatment

The present study compared 89 patients assigned to long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis in the Netherlands with psychiatric and nonclinical norm groups with regard to symptoms and personality pathology as assessed with six instruments. Patients filled in four self-report questionnaires (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised [SCL-90-R], Beck Depression Inventory-II [BDI-II], State-Trait Anxiety Inventory [STAI]) and underwent a personality assessment (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 [MMPI-2], Rorschach-CS). The authors used statistically defined cutoff values for each measure. For each instrument separately, about 50% of the patients reported clinical levels of psychopathology, some patients being more depressed and others reporting other symptoms. By combining the test scores of the different instruments, the authors found that 91% of the patients were identified as clinical cases. Compared to psychiatric norm groups, these patients appeared to report lower levels of symptom distress, but similar levels of personality pathology. The next step will be to investigate the level of improvement after long-term psychoanalytic treatment.