Mental health characteristics of patients assigned to long-term ambulatory psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in the Netherlands

The present study investigated mental health characteristics of 170 patients assigned to long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy (PP) versus psychoanalysis (PA) across treatment and studies. Both univariate and multivariate statistics showed that the main difference between treatments was found in the interpersonal domain. PA patients reported significantly more interpersonal problems (as measured by the Inventory for Interpersonal Problems-64), scored higher on the avoidant coping style and lower on the perceptual thinking index of the Rorschach-Comprehensive System, and scored lower on Aggressiveness and Psychoticism Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 PSY-5 scales compared with PP patients. Compared with psychoanalytic patients in other studies, our patients had similar levels of mental health problems, although not always in the same health areas. Limitations of the study were noted, such as the lack of outcome data and other comparison groups.