Effects of individual cohesion and patient interpersonal style on outcome in psychodynamically oriented inpatient group psychotherapy

The influence of patients' interpersonal traits in interaction with experienced individual cohesion (i.e., each patient's feeling of belonging to the group) was investigated in a sample of 327 inpatients with mixed diagnoses. High cohesion and an increase in cohesion emerged as predictive for symptom improvement in a multilevel regression model. This influence was moderated by the affiliation dimension: In dismissive patients, an increase of cohesion over the course of treatment was helpful; in affiliative patients, symptom improvement was correlated with a slight decrease of cohesion. The findings highlight the therapeutic importance of group therapy and point to the differential influence of individually experienced group cohesion.