INTRODUCTION Patients seeking psychotherapy often spend time on waitlist (WL), the effect of which is largely unknown. WL patients may forego alternative non-psychotherapeutic assistance and thus do more poorly than had they not been placed on a WL. The course of symptoms might also be influenced by use of antidepressant medication (ADM), an issue that remains unexplored in the literature. OBJECTIVE In a naturalistic setting, WL symptom change before inpatient psychotherapy (mean weeks of waiting = 22.6) was assessed in a sample (N = 313) of chronically depressed patients. METHODS Using the Beck Depression Inventory-II, patients' symptoms were tracked at assessment, when admitted to treatment (i.e., after WL), at posttreatment and 1-year follow-up. Multilevel growth curve analysis was used to examine waitlist change for the whole sample as well as for ADM users and nonmedicated patients. RESULTS Symptoms were reduced significantly from assessment to admittance (Cohen's d = 0.47). Symptoms reduced less for ADM users (d = 0.39) than for nonmedicated patients (d = 0.65). CONCLUSION The findings indicate that chronically depressed patients experience a decrease in symptoms during WL, quite likely due to treatment expectations. We discuss whether less symptom improvement for ADM users could be attributed to iatrogenic comorbidity and a higher degree of demoralization in this group.

中文翻译：

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慢性抑郁症药物和非药物患者候补期间的症状变化。


简介 寻求心理治疗的患者经常在候补名单（WL）上花费时间，其效果很大程度上未知。 WL 患者可能会放弃其他非心理治疗援助，因此比没有接受 WL 时表现更差。症状的进程也可能受到抗抑郁药物（ADM）的影响，这是一个文献中尚未探讨的问题。目的 在自然主义环境中，对慢性抑郁症患者样本 (N = 313) 住院心理治疗前的 WL 症状变化（平均等待周数 = 22.6）进行评估。方法 使用 Beck 抑郁量表 II，在评估时、入院治疗时（即 WL 后）、治疗后和 1 年随访时对患者的症状进行跟踪。使用多级增长曲线分析来检查整个样本以及 ADM 用户和未用药患者的候补名单变化。结果 从评估到入院，症状显着减轻（Cohen's d = 0.47）。 ADM 使用者 (d = 0.39) 的症状减轻程度低于未用药患者 (d = 0.65)。结论 研究结果表明，慢性抑郁症患者在 WL 期间症状有所减轻，这很可能是由于治疗预期所致。我们讨论了 ADM 使用者症状改善较少是否可能归因于该群体的医源性合并症和较高程度的士气低落。