A Preliminary Study of the Interactive Effect of Avoidant Personality Disorder Symptoms and Expressive Suppression on the Outcome of a Psychodynamically Oriented Day Treatment Program.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Ogrodniczuk JS; Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.; Kealy D; Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.; Cox DW; Associate Professor, Counselling Psychology Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.; Mielimąka M; Chair, Department of Psychotherapy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland.; Joyce AS; Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
- Source
- Publisher: Guilford Press Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101580621 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2162-2604 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 21622590 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Psychodyn Psychiatry Subsets: MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
Introduction: Patients with avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) pathology tend to have poor prognosis in psychotherapy, yet there has been little research conducted to better understand why their outcomes are limited, making it difficult to improve treatments for them. Expressive suppression is a dysfunctional emotion regulation strategy that may exacerbate avoidant tendencies, further complicating the therapeutic process. Methods: Using data from a naturalistic study ( N = 34) of a group-based day treatment program, we examined whether there was an interactive effect of AvPD symptoms and expressive suppression on treatment outcome. Results: Findings revealed a significant moderating effect of expressive suppression on the association between AvPD symptoms and treatment outcome. The outcome for patients with more severe AvPD symptoms was particularly poor when they engaged in high levels of expressive suppression. Discussion: The findings suggest that the combination of significant AvPD pathology and high expressive suppression is associated with poorer responsiveness to treatment.