The Development of Depression During Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy Among Subjects in Substance Abuse Remission

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine the development of self-reported depression during psychodynamic group therapy among patients manifesting a history of substance use related problems between 1993–2,2000. Subjects (n=100) were prospectively followed with respects to depression levels at intake and after 6, 12, and 18 month in therapy. Depression was measured with the Beck Depression Inventory. Overall, there was a significant decrease in depression after 18 months in therapy. The development of depression in different subgroups was also analyzed.

Keywords:

• depression
• group therapy
• longitudinal
• substance abuse

Notes

¹The cluster analysis was performed on the four measurements of depression (at intake and after 6, 12, and 18 months in therapy) using Wards method. The presented four cluster solution showed 70.8 percent “explained variance” (i.e., 1-[intra-cluster variance/total variance]). As a means of testing that the cluster solution was not the result of random variation, it was compared to a random model. This was done by a standardized procedure (Simulate) in the Sleipner computer program (Bergman & El Khouri, 1998). The procedure is computed by comparing the results of the cluster solution to N cluster solutions based on artificial data sets (extracted by scrambling the individual scores within each variable). The result of this procedure, based on 20 comparisons showed an average of 43.5 % “explained variance” for the cluster solutions based on the “random” data sets. The difference between the presented cluster solution and the set of solutions based on randomized data was statistically significant (t₁₉ = 56.1; p < 0.001).