Therapy outcome in patients with severe somatoform disorder: prediction from psychological profiles.
Summary
Treatment effects for patients with a severe somatoform disorder are generally modest with large inter-individual differences. Because of these large inter individual differences in outcomes; it would be valuable to be able to make an estimation of the chance at a positive therapy outcome before the therapy starts. This study investigated whether psychological profiles can be associated with outcome after treatment in 114 patients with somatoform disorder. Five distinct profiles that differed in terms of resilience, vulnerability, and avoidance were examined. These profiles were labeled inflexible, active, liming, adaptive and maladaptive. Levels of psychopathology, complaints, mental- and physical functioning and frequency of daily activities differed between these profiles. Psychological profiles did not significantly predict the outcome of therapy. Because lack of significance might be due to the small sample size, outcomes with at least a small effect size were explored. This tentatively indicated that the offered therapy might be more suitable for active and inflexible individuals and less appropriate for the individuals from the adaptive, maladaptive and limiting groups. Overall, the mean result of the therapy was disappointing underscoring the importance of examining predictors of therapy outcome. A replication of this study in a larger sample is needed to examine the tentatively indicated finding that the therapy might better fit specific subgroups. Is this is confirmed, the implication would be that therapy is adapted or more personalized to the individual.