Measuring adverse and unwanted events in psychotherapy

• Background: Psychotherapy offers many benefits, but research also indicate that negative effects sometimes occur. The Negative Effects Questionnaire (NEQ) was therefore developed to help researchers and clinicians determine the occurrence and characteristics of such incidents. Method: The NEQ was evaluated in two studies, using data from both clinical trials and a survey distributed among individuals in the general population (Ns 653 and 564). Results: The results from an exploratory factor analysis suggest that six factors could be relevant to retain: symptoms, quality, dependency, stigma, hopelessness, and failure, with poor treatment quality and therapeutic relationship having the highest self-rated negative effects. Further, the results from a Rasch analysis, a modern test theory application, suggest that the self-report measure exhibits fairness in testing across sociodemographics and that it is suitable for monitoring items with regard to their frequencies or levels of impact. Overall, 18.8% of the patients experienced more stress, 12.6% reported the resurfacing of unpleasant memories, and 12.2% were more anxious during treatment, implying that adverse and unwanted events are not uncommon in psychotherapy and may have to be monitored. Conclusion: The NEQ could be a useful self-report measure to investigate negative effects in both research and clinical practice.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

psychotherapy

negative effects

NEQ

Psychology

psykologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)