Interrelationships of symptomatic and relational distress: Improvements in interpersonal problems predict subsequent improvement in depressive symptoms during open-ended psychotherapy for adults with depression.

IF 4.5 1区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

Journal of consulting and clinical psychology Pub Date : 2025-06-01 DOI:10.1037/ccp0000956

Andreas Høstmælingen,Helene Amundsen Nissen-Lie,Jon Trygve Monsen,Ole André Solbakken

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE Depressed patients often experience interpersonal distress. Understanding how interpersonal distress and depressive symptoms are associated may have implications for understanding the etiology and maintenance of depression, as well as for treatment. In this naturalistic psychotherapy study, we explored whether change in depressive symptoms predicted subsequent change in interpersonal distress or vice versa. METHOD Depressive symptoms (depression scale of the Symptom Check List-90-Revised) and interpersonal problems (Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-64) were assessed on nine occasions, including before, during, and after treatment and at 1 and 2.5 years follow-up in a sample of 178 depressed patients receiving open-ended psychotherapy. We used latent curve modeling with structured residuals to assess possible reciprocal relations between interpersonal problems and depression, controlling for personality disorder. RESULTS The findings showed that interpersonal distress had a slower rate of change compared to depressive symptoms, but improvements in interpersonal distress predicted subsequent improvement in depressive symptoms during psychotherapy, and this effect was stable over time. Patients with comorbid personality disorder had higher initial levels of both depression and interpersonal distress, but there were no differences in rates of change for any of the outcomes. CONCLUSION Our results indicate that improvements in interpersonal problems may play an important role in alleviating depressive symptoms during psychotherapy. We propose that reduction of interpersonal distress is associated with increased interpersonal flexibility, which may lead to more positive responses from others, thereby contributing to a reduction in depressive symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

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症状性和关系性痛苦的相互关系：人际关系问题的改善预示着在开放式心理治疗中抑郁症成人患者抑郁症状的后续改善。

目的：抑郁症患者常经历人际关系困扰。了解人际困扰和抑郁症状之间的关系可能有助于理解抑郁症的病因、维持以及治疗。在这项自然主义心理治疗研究中，我们探讨了抑郁症状的变化是否预示着人际关系困扰的后续变化，反之亦然。方法对178例接受开放式心理治疗的抑郁症患者进行治疗前、治疗中、治疗后以及随访1年和2.5年9次抑郁症状（《症状检查表-90-修订版》抑郁量表）和人际问题（《人际问题量表-64》）评估。在控制人格障碍的情况下，我们使用带有结构化残差的潜曲线模型来评估人际问题与抑郁之间可能的相互关系。结果研究结果显示，与抑郁症状相比，人际关系困扰的变化速度较慢，但人际关系困扰的改善预示着心理治疗期间抑郁症状的改善，而且这种影响随着时间的推移是稳定的。合并人格障碍的患者在抑郁和人际关系困扰方面的初始水平都较高，但在任何结果的变化率方面都没有差异。结论心理治疗过程中人际关系问题的改善可能在缓解抑郁症状中起重要作用。我们认为人际压力的减少与人际灵活性的增加有关，这可能会导致他人做出更积极的反应，从而有助于减少抑郁症状。（PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA，版权所有）。

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来源期刊

Journal of consulting and clinical psychology PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

9.00

自引率

3.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology® (JCCP) publishes original contributions on the following topics: the development, validity, and use of techniques of diagnosis and treatment of disordered behaviorstudies of a variety of populations that have clinical interest, including but not limited to medical patients, ethnic minorities, persons with serious mental illness, and community samplesstudies that have a cross-cultural or demographic focus and are of interest for treating behavior disordersstudies of personality and of its assessment and development where these have a clear bearing on problems of clinical dysfunction and treatmentstudies of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation that have a clear bearing on diagnosis, assessment, and treatmentstudies of psychosocial aspects of health behaviors. Studies that focus on populations that fall anywhere within the lifespan are considered. JCCP welcomes submissions on treatment and prevention in all areas of clinical and clinical–health psychology and especially on topics that appeal to a broad clinical–scientist and practitioner audience. JCCP encourages the submission of theory–based interventions, studies that investigate mechanisms of change, and studies of the effectiveness of treatments in real-world settings. JCCP recommends that authors of clinical trials pre-register their studies with an appropriate clinical trial registry (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, ClinicalTrialsRegister.eu) though both registered and unregistered trials will continue to be considered at this time.