Does Depressive Severity Have an Immediate Effect on Therapeutic Distance at Mid-Acute Phase in Cognitive Therapy for Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder?

Abstract

The degree to which severity of depression predicted Therapeutic Distance (TD) was researched with 375 patients with recurrent Major Depressive Disorder who received Cognitive Therapy. Therapeutic Distance was calculated by subtracting Working Alliance Inventory-Form C (WAI-C) from Working Alliance Inventory-Form T (WAI-T). Therapeutic Distance of each of the three subscales of the WAI was also calculated in order to determine whether the severity of depression predicted TD in the Bond, Task, or Goal subscales. The extent to which the severity of depression had an effect on the TD from midpoint to endpoint of the study was determined. Furthermore, the severity of depression and response to treatment at the first blind evaluation was analyzed. Results suggested that depressive severity was not predictive of TD overall or of the three subscales. However, when looking at TD over time, it seems that TD task is significantly different from midpoint to endpoint of the acute phase CT. Additionally, it appears that regardless of the severity of depression, the working alliance was established rather quickly and remained fairly stable throughout the acute phase of the study.