Anamarija Bogović

Changes in aspects of cognitive functioning in young patients with schizophrenia during group psychodynamic psychotherapy: A preliminary study

Abstract Background: The “Sveti Ivan” psychiatric hospital in Zagreb, Croatia, offers an outpatient Early Intervention Program for psychotic patients. This program consists of psycho-educational workshops and group psychodynamic psychotherapy. Two important objectives of the program are improving and maintaining adequate cognitive functioning. Aims: The current study examined changes in aspects of cognitive functioning in young patients with schizophrenia after 18 months and after 3 years of psychodynamic group psychotherapy. Methods: The study included 28 patients who attended the Early Intervention Program for young patients with psychotic disorders; 10 patients had completed only the psycho-educational part of the program (comparative group), and 18 patients continued with group psychodynamic psychotherapy (experimental group). All patients completed the Revised Beta Examination. Results: We observed a trend in the experimental group to achieve higher scores than the comparative group. The results for both groups tended to increase with time, and this increase was greater in the experimental group. Conclusions: While acknowledging the limitations of this preliminary study, we conclude that participating in psychodynamic group psychotherapy is related to increases in the cognitive functioning of patients with schizophrenia, and our results provide a sound basis for future research.

The Perceived Importance of Yalom’s Therapeutic Factors in Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy for Patients with Psychosis

The aim of this study was to examine the importance of Yalom’s therapeutic factors in psychodynamic group psychotherapy based on the duration of patients’ participation in the group and their sociodemographic characteristics. A total of 57 outpatients with psychosis completed Yalom’s therapeutic factors questionnaire, and were divided into four groups according to the duration of their participation in the group. The instillation of hope, group cohesiveness and existential factors were the highest ranking, whereas identification was the lowest ranking therapeutic factor. Longer participation in the group was associated with greater perceived importance of catharsis and family re-enactment factors. The relationship between the perceived importance of the therapeutic factors and the participant’s gender, age, and level of education was examined. The findings of this study may contribute to an improved understanding of group processes in patients with psychosis, and may assist with the development of more effective therapeutic approaches in this population.