Relação entre aliança terapêutica e abandono em psicoterapia breve em pacientes adultos com depressão

Abstract

Treatment dropout in psychotherapy is of extreme importance in daily medical practice; it occurs in about 20% of clinical cases, i.e., one in five patients initiating psychotherapy treatment will abandon it. Thus, it is important that the factors behind treatment dropout could be objectively assessed in an attempt to avoid it altogether, considering the damage it causes to patients, therapists and to the health system. Several studies have demonstrated the importance of Therapeutic Alliance in the outcomes of psychotherapy. This study aims to evaluate the association between the quality of the Therapeutic Alliance and the rate of discontinuation of brief psychotherapy in depression-diagnosed adults who received guidance clinic treatment in the city of Pelotas. Participants will be divided into two groups and given two psychotherapeutic interventions; Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy and Supportive-Expressive Dynamic Psychotherapy for limited time. The quality of the Therapeutic Alliance will be evaluated at various times of treatment by Helping Alliance Questionnaire II (Version patient and therapist). Through this study, it is expected to determine whether the therapeutic alliance can be a predictive factor dropout in psychotherapy.