Authors

Piedad Pérez Marín1, Ignacio García Cabeza2

Position

1Enfermera especialista en Salud Mental. Servicio de Psiquiatría B. Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón. Madrid2Psiquiatra. Servicio de Psiquiatría B. Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón. Madrid

Contact address

Piedad Pérez Marín. Servicio de Psiquiatría B. HGU Gregorio Marañón. C/ Ibiza, 43. 28009 Madrid.

Abstract

Objectives: to assess the importance assigned by patients to Group Psychotherapy in a Short-Term Psychiatric Unit, and to understand which elements have been more useful to them.
Method: a descriptive transversal study was conducted in the Short-Term Unit of the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañón (Madrid). The study population were those patients with a diagnosis of affective disorder admitted to the unit during 2014, and who participated in the Psychotherapy Group conducted with all patients during their stay. These patients completed a data collection booklet with a 10-item scale, derived from the scale developed by Kanas and Barr for hospitalized patients regarding therapeutic factors, where they were asked to value the usefulness of Group Psychotherapy and individual and pharmacological interventions during their hospital stay.
Results: one hundred and two (102) patients with diagnosis of affective disorder were assessed.
The best valued factors were: “the group offers me a place where to express my emotions”, and “the group shows me that I am not the only one with problems”, which were placed among the three most important elements by 74.3% and 73.3% of patients, respectively. A 94.2% of patients described the help by the group during their hospital stay as enough or high, vs. 69.9% for individual interventions and 63.8% for pharmacological interventions.
Conclusions: hospital groups, with interventions adapted to the characteristics of each hospitalized patient, can offer an additional therapeutical value, sometimes unspecific, but also with specific therapeutic group elements such as universality or altruism.

Keywords:

Affective disorder; group psychotherapy; interpersonal psychotherapy; therapeutic factors

Versión en Español

Título:

Eficacia de la psicoterapia de grupo en pacientes con diagnóstico de trastorno afectivo hospitalizados