Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:603-608
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Psychotherapy of schizophrenia: an empirical investigation of the relationship of process to outcome
LL Glass, HM Katz, RD Schnitzer, PH Knapp, AF Frank and JG Gunderson
Psychosocial Research Program, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02178-9106.
The Boston Psychotherapy Study found no major differences in the effects of
insight-oriented and supportive psychotherapies in the treatment of
schizophrenia. The authors of the current study looked beyond the
assignments to those treatment designations and used blindly rated
transcripts of tape-recorded sessions to examine the relationship of
therapist interventions and patient outcomes at 2 years. They found
significant relationships between skillfully conducted psychodynamic
exploration and greater improvements in negative symptom areas of
schizophrenia. The authors note the limitations and implications of these
findings for clinical practice and research.
