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This study aimed to determine predictors of initial improvement regarding quality of life, symptoms, and defensive style of adult patients in psychodynamic psychotherapy. This is a naturalistic quantitative study conducted at a mental health outpatient clinic. Patients were assessed before starting psychotherapy and in the 6th month of treatment using the same instruments. Patients who were still in treatment at the 6th month of psychotherapy reported, in general, better quality of life, less symptoms, reduced severity of symptoms, and changes in some aspects of their defensive style. Those patients who sought treatment because of anxiety problems were associated with higher risk of no initial improvement. Clinicians and researchers find it difficult to predict the outcome of patients starting psychodynamic psychotherapy; other clinical settings should be investigated to enable the understanding of this complex phenomenon. Although psychodynamic psychotherapy is a long-term
MARINA BENTO GASTAUD PhD has a master's degree in Clinical Psychology and is a specialist in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. She is a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Post-Graduation Program in Medical Sciences: Psychiatry, Porto Alegre, Brazil; postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), São Leopoldo, Brazil; and professor and researcher at the Contemporary Institute of Psychoanalysis and Transdisciplinarity [Contemporǎneo — Instituto de Psicanálise e Transdisciplinaridade], Porto Alegre, Brazil. Financial support for her doctoral thesis was provided in the form of a scholarship from CAPES (Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel — Brazil). Address for correspondence: Comendador Caminha 312/205, 90430-030 Porto Alegre (RS), Brazil. []
CAROLINA STOPINSKI PADOAN is a psychologist and specialist in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and currently a master's student. She is a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Post Graduation Program in Medical Sciences: Psychiatry, Porto Alegre, Brazil, and at the Contemporary Institute of Psychoanalysis and Transdisciplinarity, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
CLÁUDIO LAKS EIZIRIK PhD is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and adjunct professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Post-Graduation Program in Medical Sciences: Psychiatry, Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is a training analyst at Sociedade Psicanalítica de Porto Alegre (SPPA), Brazil, and former President of the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA).
treatment, patients show evidence of improvement from the beginning of the treatment. Follow-up studies of these patients are needed to monitor the process of improvement after this initial period.