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What do patients do before it starts? Coping with mental health problems on a CBT waiting list

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

Sylvia Helbig  and
Jürgen Hoyer
Sylvia Helbig*
Affiliation:
Centre for Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Jürgen Hoyer
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany
*
*Author for correspondence: S. Helbig, Dipl.-Psych., Centre for Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, University of Bremen, Grazer Str. 6, 28359 Bremen, Germany (email: shelbig@uni-bremen.de).
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Abstract

Data from a patient survey on self-help and coping strategies during waiting time for CBT are reported. Individuals on an outpatient treatment centre waiting list received a short questionnaire assessing problem-related activities carried out in the interval before therapy (mean waiting time 69 days). A total of 306 patients with a wide range of reliably diagnosed mental disorders were assessed. Results showed that the vast majority of patients (~95%) instigated at least one form of coping or self-help activity related to their mental problem. Resource-orientated strategies were most often reported (88%), but ‘seeking information about the problem’ was also highly prevalent. About one third of persons reported additional health-care utilization. Higher rates of symptom distress and depression were associated with additional health-care utilization and with more passive coping strategies such as distraction. Active self-help strategies contributed to poorer depression outcome and were, thus, no indicator of good prognosis. Other coping strategies were not linked to outcome variables. It can be concluded that problem-related processes do start before treatment. A more systematic integration of self-help activities into the case-formulation and more systematic research on the related (motivational) processes are recommended.

Keywords

CBTcoping strategiesself-helpwaiting lists
Type
Service models and forms of delivery
Information
the Cognitive Behaviour Therapist , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 45 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2008

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