Patient personality and outcome in short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy

The current study examines pretherapy patient personality characteristics that may be related to outcome in Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. The prognostic ability of the Capacity for Dynamic Process Scale (CDPS; Thackrey et al., A Collection of Psychological Scales. 1993:57-63) was examined in a sample of 71 outpatient adults seeking treatment at a university-based community clinic. The relationship of CDPS to various outcome variables, including both patient and clinician perspectives, were investigated. A Principal Components Factor Analysis of the items comprising the CDPS was used to identify salient item clusters representing the insight, affective, or relational capacities of patients. Results indicated that the CDPS Total score was positively correlated to several of the outcome measures, but not at a level of significance. Certain CDPS items, and to a greater extent items composing the Insight subscale, demonstrated significant positive relationships to a number of patient and clinician rated outcome measures. Results from the study will be discussed in regard to their applied clinical implications.