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Brief Behavioural Psychotherapy with Psychosomatic/Anxiety Patients in Primary Health Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Reinhard Kowalski
Reinhard Kowalski
Affiliation:
District Psychology Department, Hellingly Hospital, Hailsham, East Sussex
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Extract

To date clinical psychology research in primary health care has not taken sufficient account of the specific medical learning history of psychosomatic/anxiety patients and of the need to modify this learning process in therapy. In this pilot study a clinical judgement method is used to identify a group of primary care patients with physical symptoms where the general practitioner considers psychological factors highly relevant. Brief behavioural psychotherapy is defined and offered to those patients in order to provide effective approaches to their symptoms.

As a result different patient groups emerge: those who do not attend for their initial interview, those who attend only for their initial interview and those who attend for further sessions. These groups differ in general practice consultation rates prior to the intervention, and their consultation rates change differently following the intervention. The regular therapy attenders also differ from the “interview only” patients in terms of chronicity and degree of depressive symptoms. Significant symptomatic improvement was achieved for the therapy group. Further research is needed to identify the different groups of psychosomatic primary health care patients.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1985 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1985

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