Emotional experience and change in psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy

The subject of the present study is the recording of emotional experience and its change through inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy, taking into account the factors of age, gender, and traumatic experiences in childhood and adolescence. The following standardized instruments were used on the clinical sample of 971 patients (413 inpatient, 558 day clinic patients) at the beginning and at the end of the treatment: Questionnaire for the Assessment of Emotional Experience and Emotion Regulation (EER), Childhood-Trauma-Questionnaire (CTQ), Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), Helping Alliance Questionnaire (HAQ), Symptom-Check-List (SCL-90-R). The mean duration of treatment was 66.8 days (SD = 14.1; range 30-96). Younger patients and polytraumatized patients showed a higher expression of negative emotions. At the end of treatment, the whole group of patients showed a change in emotional experience, especially a strong decrease in passive-negative emotions and a decrease in psychological distress. Age represented a significant factor influencing emotional change. The results underline the importance of emotional change as a prerequisite for treatment success and confirm the effectiveness of inpatient psychodynamic treatment. A further differentiation of the patients with regard to their emotional responsiveness seems to make sense with regard to the suitability of the therapeutic offers.