Abstract
Objective
Psychosomatic inpatient rehabilitation aims at promoting functioning in patients with mental disorders. Although generally effective, some patients do not benefit from this rehabilitation and suffer from symptoms as well as functional impairment. This study aimed to identify patient-reported factors influencing activity and participation outcomes.
Subject and methods
Five focus groups with N=23 former psychosomatic rehabilitation inpatients were conducted. The discussions focused on facilitators and barriers of treatment outcome. The material was analyzed inductively according to qualitative content analysis. Categories were derived from the material.
Results
Patients reported sociodemographic and clinical characteristics as well as personal factors, preparation before psychotherapy, and aspects of employment and health care as predictors of treatment success.
Conclusion
A wide range of possible factors that influence the course of functioning from the patients’ perspective were determined. These factors can be assigned to the ICF conceptual model. Clinician and researcher perspectives may complement these factors.
Acknowledgments
The study was funded by the “Verein zur Förderung der Rehabilitationsforschung in Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Schleswig-Holstein (vffr)”, an institution that supports rehabilitation research in the northern part of Germany.
We would like to thank Nora Tüpker (NT), who assisted in moderating two of the focus group discussions. Dr Silke Kleinschmidt and Dr Gabriele Fröhlich-Gildhoff facilitated this project in their psychosomatic inpatient clinics in Bad Malente and Bad Wildungen, Germany. Furthermore, we thank the 23 former patients who traveled up to 600 km to take part and offer their expertise in the focus group discussions.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.