Alexithymia moderates effects of psychotherapeutic treatment expectations on depression outcome in interdisciplinary chronic pain treatment.

Blättler, Larissa T.; Stewart, Julian A.; Gubler, Danièle A.; Egloff, Niklaus; von Känel, Roland; grosse Holtforth, Martin (2019). Alexithymia moderates effects of psychotherapeutic treatment expectations on depression outcome in interdisciplinary chronic pain treatment. Journal of psychosomatic research, 122, pp. 69-72. Elsevier 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.04.010

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OBJECTIVE

Previous research has shown that patient's treatment expectations predict outcome in the multimodal therapy for chronic pain. Alexithymia, defined as the difficulty to identify, describe and express one's own feelings, may moderate treatment expectations and thereby effect treatment outcome. Accordingly, the aim of the current study is to examine the moderating role of alexithymia on the association of psychotherapeutic treatment expectation on depression outcome.

METHOD

213 chronic pain inpatients completed a set of standardized self-report questionnaires, assessing alexithymia, psychotherapeutic treatment motivation and depression. A hierarchical linear regression model tested the moderating effect of alexithymia on the relationship of psychotherapeutic treatment expectations with depression as outcome variable.

RESULTS

Both, alexithymia and psychotherapeutic treatment expectations predicted treatment outcome independently, and alexithymia moderated the effect of psychotherapeutic treatment expectations on outcome, above and beyond the effects of control variables.

DISCUSSION

This study supports the beneficial role of positive psychotherapeutic treatment expectations in an interdisciplinary chronic pain treatment, and suggest to consider difficulties in identifying and describing feelings (alexithymia) in clinical decisions.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology > Centre of Competence for Psychosomatic Medicine
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Personality Psychology, Differential Psychology and Diagnostics
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology

UniBE Contributor:

Blättler, Larissa Tatjana, Stewart, Julian Anthony Wharton, Gubler, Danièle Anne, Egloff, Niklaus, Grosse Holtforth, Martin

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education

ISSN:

0022-3999

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Chantal Kottler

Date Deposited:

05 Dec 2019 13:10

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:33

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.04.010

Related URLs:

PubMed ID:

31010581

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Alexithymia Chronic pain Expectation Interdisciplinary treatment Moderator

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.136081

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/136081

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