ACTA FAC MED NAISS 2013;30(3):151-157

Original article

UDC: 615.851

DOI: 10.2478/afmnai-2013-0007

Characteristics of Patients Treated Psychoterapeutically in the Outpatient Clinical Setting

Ljiljana Samardžić

Mental Health Clinic, Clinical Center Niš, Serbia


Summary

The influence of social changes in transitional country and transitional times, among other things, have made changes in the structure of the patients seeking psychotherapeutic treatment. However, there has not been any research studying characteristics of patients in psychotherapeutic treatment. The aim of our study was to establish socio-demographic, clinical and psychodynamic characteristics of patients psychotherapeutically treated in the outpatient clinical setting. Our sample consisted of 61 non-psychotic patients, randomly selected by the method of consecutive admissions and treated with psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the outpatient clinical setting. The study was conducted from January 2009 to January 2012 at the Mental Health Clinic, Clinical Center Niš. Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, Global Assessment of Functioning Scale and a Semi-structured interview for the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis were used for collecting data. Our results have shown that patients treated with psychotherapy in the outpatient clinical setting have specific socio-demographic, clinical and psychodynamic characteristics. They are young, post-adolescent individuals, mainly with the diagnosis personality disorder and comorbidity, with a moderate level of structural integration and individuation vs. dependency as the main psychological conflict. We suggest a long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy as the treatment of choice for patients with presented clinical and psychodynamic characteristics and operationalized psychodynamic diagnostic system as a valuable tool for establishing treatment focus and treatment planning.

Key words: patients, characteristics, psychotherapy, psychodynamic