AUTHOR=Probst Thomas , Sattel Heribert , Gündel Harald , Henningsen Peter , Kruse Johannes , Schneider Gudrun , Lahmann Claas TITLE=Moderating Effects of Alexithymia on Associations between the Therapeutic Alliance and the Outcome of Brief Psychodynamic-Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Multisomatoform Disorder JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry VOLUME=8 YEAR=2017 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00261 DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00261 ISSN=1664-0640 ABSTRACT=
This secondary analysis of a trial on brief psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy (PIT) for patients with multisomatoform disorder investigated whether alexithymia moderates the associations between the therapeutic alliance and the outcome of PIT and whether moderating effects of alexithymia remain significant when controlling for depression. Eighty-three patients with multisomatoform disorder receiving PIT were statistically analyzed. Moderation analyses were performed with the SPSS macro PROCESS. The primary outcome (Y), self-reported physical quality of life at 9-month after the end of PIT, was measured with the physical component summary (PCS) of the SF-36 Health Survey. The potential moderator (M) alexithymia was operationalized with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) at pre-treatment and the predictor (X) the therapeutic alliance was rated by both patients and therapists