Brief day hospital mentalization based group psychotherapy for schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A feasibility study

Abstract

Background. Mentalization-based therapy (MBT), a manualized psychodynamically and developmentally oriented psychotherapy, has been proven effective in controlled studies in non-psychotic patients with severe mental disorders. Although MBT is currently being used to treat schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), to date no prospective studies have evaluated outcomes and treatment-related adverse effects. Brief mentalization-based group psychotherapy (B-MBGT) is a 12-week program based on the explicit mentalizing techniques of MBT. The study was conducted at a day hospital (DH) and the main objective was to examine the feasibility of B-MBGT to treat patients with SSD.

Method. Open study to assess the safety of B-MBGT in 72 patients who met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, schizoaffective disorder, or unspecified psychotic disorder. All patients underwent both B-MBGT and Integrated Psychological Therapy (IPT). Consequently, a secondary aim was to compare these two therapies in terms of acceptance and subjective efficacy.

Results. Adverse reactions were scarce and the most common of the reported ones, discomfort during the group treatment session, was considered mild in most cases. Compared to IPT, B-MBGT yielded significant higher scores on four subjective efficacy parameters.

Conclusion. B-MBGT in DH is both feasible and safe in SSD patients and most patients in this study considered B-MBGT to be beneficial. Controlled studies are needed to determine the effectiveness of B-MBGT.