[The use of OPD-based focused interventions in inpatient psychotherapy: effects on outcome and course of treatment]. / Fokusorientierte Interventionen mit der OPD in der stationären Psychotherapie: Effekte auf Ergebnis und Verlauf der Behandlung.

OBJECTIVES: The study explores the course and outcome of inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy (N=200) with particular regard to interpersonal experiences and behaviour. Based on the implementation of a focus conference, the multi-professional team members formulated an interpersonal treatment focus and individualised helpful interpersonal attitude towards the patient (so-called therapeutic tuning). This focus formulation follows the systematic procedure provided by the Operationalised Psychodynamic Diagnostics System (OPD-2). METHODS: The study was initiated to evaluate the effectiveness of the so-called "tuning-treatment" compared to inpatient "treatment as usual". RESULTS: Compared to "treatment as usual", the tuning condition showed greater improvement (p>.001) in interpersonal functioning (GARF). Interpersonal problems (IIP) and symptoms (SCL-90-R) were slightly more improved than in the "treatment as usual" cases (p=.13 and. p=.09). CONCLUSIONS: An interpersonal treatment focus followed by focus-oriented interventions is a promising approach for inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy. Generalisation of the empirical results is, however, limited due to problems of internal validity.