Patients' style of emotional processing moderates the impact of common factors in psychotherapy

This study examined how patient characteristics concerning processing of emotions interact with common factors in psychotherapy. We focused on common factors of emotional processing in psychotherapy with regard to depression outcome. A total of 93 psychiatric outpatients were included. Patients completed preassessments and postassessments regarding depression symptoms and emotional processing style. In addition, the subjectively perceived activation of common factors related to emotional processing in therapy was assessed by the patients after each therapy session. Depending on patients' pretreatment characteristics in emotional processing, activation of the emotion-related common factor mindfulness in treatment had varying impact on depression outcome: The perceived activation of mindfulness had a positive impact on depression reduction only in patients with pretreatment deficits in cognitive representation and communication of emotions. In patients who did not show such deficits, the perceived activation of this common factor during treatment was negatively correlated with outcome. It appears that common factors in psychotherapy must match with patient characteristics to gain therapeutic significance. Examining the interplay of patient characteristics with common factors provides a promising approach to tailor psychotherapeutic procedures in the sense of a personalized psychotherapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).