Browsing by Author "Laurila, Matias"

Aims. The social support received from family, friends and other social relations has a notable influence on an individual's psychological well-being. It has been consistently shown that social support helps to reduce the symptoms of depressive and anxiety disorders and has been connected to better quality of life. Psychotherapeutic interventions have been shown to have a positive effect on perceived social support, but both the effect of individual therapies and the stability of the effect have been studied seldom. The aim of this study is to examine and compare how the perceived social support developed in short- and longterm psychodynamic psychotherapy and solution-focused therapy. Methods. The study was conducted as a part of the Helsinki Psychotherapy Study (HPS). The study population consisted of 326 Finnish adult outpatients suffering from depressive and/or anxiety disorders. The patients were randomized into solution-focused therapy (SFT; n=97), long-term (LPP; n=128) or short-term (SPP; n=101) psychodynamic psychotherapy. The perceived social support was measured by A brief inventory of social support and integration (BISSI) questionnaire. The participants answered the questionnaire six times, once in a year, during the 5-year follow-up period. The development of social support in the therapies was analysed by linear mixed models. Results and Conclusions. The perceived social support had increased slightly more in LPP than in SPP at the end of the LPP therapy. No significant differences between SFT and the psychodynamic therapies were found at any follow-up point. In LPP and SFT a notable increase in perceived social support occurred during the first year of the follow-up, and the change was still significant at the five-year follow-up point. In SPP the increase occurred slower and the positive change at the five-year follow-up was somewhat lesser than in other therapies. The results provide preliminary knowledge of the relatively equal and stable positive effect of solution-focused therapies and short- and long-term psychodynamic psychotherapies on the perceived social support.