Comparison of clinical and psychological characteristics in patients with neurotic disorders who chose active versus passive role in psychotherapy. Part 1

Relevance is determined by the need to solve one of the most difficult methodological problems in evidence-based psychotherapy - assessment of clinical, medical- and clinical-psychological changes in patients during psychotherapy in order to increase its effectiveness and simultaneously reduce its duration.

Intention: Comparative analysis of clinical and psychological characteristics of patients with neurotic disorders who actively choose psychotherapeutic treatment and passively participate in psychotherapy.

Methodology. Clinical and clinical-psychological methods were used. The dynamics of clinical and psychological characteristics of 82 patients with neurotic disorders aged 18 to 55 years is presented. Forty five persons (54.9%) actively chose psychotherapy and 37 persons (45.1%) – passively. These groups were homogeneous in terms of gender, age and other socio-demographic characteristics. Here Part 1 of the article is presented revealing the treatment effectiveness in patients who have actively chosen psychotherapy.

Results and Discussion. Psychotherapeutic treatment was effective in both groups, which, in particular, is confirmed by a decrease in the severity of neurotic symptoms. Psychotherapy was more effective for patients in the active choice psychotherapy group. They not only reduced the severity of neurotic symptoms, but also changed their behavior – they became more sociable, formulated their own goals, demonstrated adequate behavior strategies in accordance with the changing actual situation.

Conclusion. The data obtained indicate the specificity of the dynamics of clinical and clinical and psychological characteristics and give reason to assume positive effects of the active choice of psychotherapy on the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

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