Journal article
Discrepant negative self-associations as a risk factor for depressive deterioration after outpatient psychotherapy.
- Gómez Penedo JM Universidad de Buenos Aires (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina & Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: jmgomezpenedo@gmail.com.
- Krieger T Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
- Koditek MC Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern & Psychosomatic Competence Center, Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
- Grosse Holtforth M Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern & Psychosomatic Competence Center, Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Inselspital, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
- 2020-05-30
Published in:
- Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry. - 2020
Depression
Deterioration
Discrepancy
Explicit self-associations
Implicit self-associations
Implicit-association test
English
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
This paper examines the discrepancy between implicit and explicit negative self-associations (NSA) after cognitive psychotherapy for depression as a predictor of long-term outcome.
METHODS
One hundred and twenty patients completed an Implicit-Association Test relating the self with depressive attributes and a self-report questionnaire with identical item content, at the end of time-limited outpatient depression psychotherapy. At post-treatment and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up, patients completed the BDI-II. We used different strategies to operationalized implicit and explicit NSA discrepancies and three-level Hierarchical linear models to analyze the effects.
RESULTS
We found significant interactive effects of discrepancy between implicit and explicit NSA and the direction of the discrepancy on long-term outcome. In patients with a greater explicit than implicit NSA (a damaged self-esteem pattern) a greater absolute discrepancy was associated with worse long-term outcome in terms of BDI scores at the end of follow-up and rate of change during follow-up. Consistently, with an alternative method, we found that damaged self-esteem discrepancies were associated with worse estimated BDI-II scores at the end of follow-up.
LIMITATIONS
The inclusion in the sample of only treatment completers limits the generalizability of the results. Furthermore, the follow-up period captured only the first 12 months after treatment.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the notion that a discrepancy between implicit and explicit negative self-associations may pose a risk factor for deterioration after psychotherapy for depression.
This paper examines the discrepancy between implicit and explicit negative self-associations (NSA) after cognitive psychotherapy for depression as a predictor of long-term outcome.
METHODS
One hundred and twenty patients completed an Implicit-Association Test relating the self with depressive attributes and a self-report questionnaire with identical item content, at the end of time-limited outpatient depression psychotherapy. At post-treatment and at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up, patients completed the BDI-II. We used different strategies to operationalized implicit and explicit NSA discrepancies and three-level Hierarchical linear models to analyze the effects.
RESULTS
We found significant interactive effects of discrepancy between implicit and explicit NSA and the direction of the discrepancy on long-term outcome. In patients with a greater explicit than implicit NSA (a damaged self-esteem pattern) a greater absolute discrepancy was associated with worse long-term outcome in terms of BDI scores at the end of follow-up and rate of change during follow-up. Consistently, with an alternative method, we found that damaged self-esteem discrepancies were associated with worse estimated BDI-II scores at the end of follow-up.
LIMITATIONS
The inclusion in the sample of only treatment completers limits the generalizability of the results. Furthermore, the follow-up period captured only the first 12 months after treatment.
CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the notion that a discrepancy between implicit and explicit negative self-associations may pose a risk factor for deterioration after psychotherapy for depression.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1016/j.jbtep.2020.101576
- PMID 32470685
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/52950
Statistics
Document views: 30
File downloads: