What makes a circle safe, and what goes wrong when it isn’t?
Adverse events of group psychotherapy in the in-patient setting – results of a naturalistic trial
Adjacent
Most in-patients in group therapy had low moods after sessions or unwanted reactions. Unwanted reactions went with less improvement, but low moods after sessions did not predict how patients fared.
Patients at a psychiatric hospital, attending a range of therapy groups, were followed with three measures of adverse events: unwanted reactions to treatment, reported every week; change in mood across every single session; and leaving the group early. The three were only loosely related. Between 60 and 65% of patients had a drop in mood or an unwanted reaction, and 34% left their group early. Unwanted reactions grew rarer as treatment went on and went with smaller gains in symptoms. Dips in mood after sessions held steady and had no bearing on outcome. Both the patients’ own characteristics and unfavourable conditions in the group predicted adverse events.
For a survey of harm in Circling, the split matters: a hard session and a harmful course are different things and need different questions.
What it doesn’t show
Psychiatric in-patients, not Circling participants. Adverse events tracked how ill patients were overall, so some may reflect the illness rather than the groups.
Summary based on the abstract.
Directions that build on it
- Safety, facilitation and harm
Links
Cite
Schneibel, R., Wilbertz, G., Scholz, C., Becker, M., Brakemeier, E.-L., Bschor, T., Zobel, I., & Schmoll, D. (2017). Adverse events of group psychotherapy in the in-patient setting – results of a naturalistic trial. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 136(3), 247–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12747