The Therapeutic Alliance Over 10 Sessions of Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: Agreement and Congruence Analysis and Relation to Outcome

The authors examined whether alliance dynamics are affected by tailoring the therapeutic relationship to the individual patient in brief psychotherapy of borderline personality disorder. Sixty patients were randomized to 10-session Good Psychiatric Management (GPM-BV) or GPM combined with Motive-Oriented Therapeutic Relationship techniques (MOTR+GPM-BV). Patient- and therapist-rated alliance was assessed weekly. Self-reported symptomatic distress was assessed pre-, mid-, and posttreatment. In MOTR+GPM-BV, stronger therapist-rated alliance predicted lower symptomatic distress in the same timepoint, but not in a lag, whereas symptomatic distress predicted therapist-rated alliance in a lag. Therapist-rated alliance was lower than patient-rated alliance in GPM-BV but not in MOTR+GPM-BV. In MOTR+GPM-BV, higher agreement on strong alliance tended to predict lower symptomatic distress. Patient- and therapist-rated alliances were temporally congruent, but congruence did not predict outcome. Addressing the relationship needs of patients may partly exert its salutary effect by increasing agreement between patients' and therapists' experience of the alliance.

The effect of a person-centred and strength-based health intervention on recovery among people with chronic illness

Background: Strengthening the health capacities of people diagnosed with a chronic illness is an essential part of secondary and tertiary prevention. However, research-based interventions focussed on health and recovery in chronic illness remain scarce. Additionally, these are often designed for specific diagnostic groups while healthcare workers are in need of more broadly applicable interventions that attend to personal resources for health. The aim of the present study was to trace patient recovery during an intervention designed to strengthen their bodily knowledge as an important resource for coping, recovery and health in chronic illness. Design and methods: The Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) was applied, as this instrument repeatedly measures progress in coping and recovery. Four dimensions were assessed: (1) individual (personal or symptomatic distress or wellbeing); (2) interpersonal (relational distress or wellbeing); (3) social (patient satisfaction with work, school and relationships) and (4) overall (general sense of wellbeing).Results: The sample comprised 13 men and 24 women who had been diagnosed with a range of long-term conditions and were attending the person-focussed health intervention in their community. Significant change was identified during the programme period. The findings indicate more improvement on the personal and general wellbeing dimensions than on the interpersonal and social dimensions. The number of participants scoring above the ORS cut-point of 25 increased by a factor of 1.7, demonstrating the programme’s efficiency.Conclusions: The results indicate that The Bodyknowledging Programme had a significant impact on the various forces driving recovery in chronic illness.

Gender differences in perception of stress among interrogators

In the article results of research of features of reaction to professional stress at employees of interrogators bodies depending on a gender accessory are stated. 106 employees of interrogators bodies (62 of them men and 44 women aged 22 to 43 years, average age 29 years) were studied with work experience from 0.5 to 21 years. The methodical complex included: a test for professional stress. Azarnykh, I.M. Tyrtyshnikov, a symptomatic questionnaire SCL-90-R, a technique for diagnosing the level of professional burnout. Boyko, the technique of coping behavior in stressful and problematic situations for the individual LI. Wasserman, McLean's organizational stress scale, a questionnaire for assessing the severity of fatigue states, monotony, satiety, stress. Leonova, the method of the "Schulte table"). It has been revealed that female interrogators are subject to a higher level of stress, as well as to a higher level of organizational stress and neuropsychic stress than their male counterparts. Female interrogators outperform their male colleagues in all three phases, as well as individual symptoms of emotional burnout. In addition, female interrogators workers are more likely than men to interrogators conditions characterized by fatigue, monotony, and satiety. Also, female interrogators show higher rates of various psychological signs of symptomatic disorders: somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorders, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, and general indices - the symptomatic distress index and symptom severity index. In addition, female interrogators differ from their male colleagues in choosing the stress of overcoming strategies. In addition, the influence of the aspects of age, length of service and level of stress on the peculiarities of stress response in men and women of interrogators was found.

Laser therapy for cutaneous sarcoidosis: A review

<p>Sarcoidosis is a systemic, multi-organ disease of unknown etiology characteristically defined by the development of non-caseating granulomas. The development of sarcoidosis has been associated with a number of environmental and microbacterial factors coupled with genetic susceptibility. Depending on the type, location and distribution of disease, sarcoidosis can cause functional impairment, symptomatic distress, scarring and disfigurement. The advent of lasers as precise, minimally destructive surgical tools has allowed for their development as promising alternatives that minimize the morbidity associated with current therapies.</p><p>In this paper, we reviewed the role of laser therapy in the treatment of cutaneous sarcoidosis. A comprehensive search of the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE and PUBMED databases was performed to identify relevant literatures investigating the role of laser therapy in the treatment of cutaneous sarcoidosis. In our opinion, laser therapy, particularly PDL, appears to be an effective, safe and generally well-tolerated modality for the treatment of cutaneous sarcoidosis and should be considered in patients with localized cutaneous disease that is refractory to conventional treatments. Less is known about the efficacy and tolerability of ablative laser therapy for the treatment of cutaneous sarcoidosis, though the limited data appears promising as well. With that said, however, the data is limited and warrants a need for additional larger, randomized controlled studies to further investigate the utility and efficacy of laser therapy in the treatment of cutaneous sarcoidosis.</p>