The Effectiveness of Dynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy on Psychological Symptoms, Emotion Regulation and Quality of Life of Psychodermatologic Patients

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy on psychological symptoms, emotion regulation, and quality of life in these patients. This research was conducted in a quasi-experimental design with two experimental and control groups and pre-test and post-test stages. The statistical population included all psychodermatologic patients in Kerman who had been referred to the dermatology clinics. The diagnosis of psychodermatology disease was done by psychologist’s diagnosis interview and dermatologist assessment. 30 participants were selected through convenience sampling and randomly divided into two groups of 15 experimental and control. Experimental group participants received sixteen 45-minute psychotherapy sessions. The Psychological Symptoms Questionnaire, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and Dermatology Life Quality Index were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by analysis of covariance. Results showed that Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy was in reducing clinical psychological symptoms and improving the quality of life of patients with psychodermatologic disease and was able to reduce the emotion regulation problems of these patients. It is suggested that psychologists and dermatologists use dynamic interpersonal psychotherapy for reducing psychodermatologic symptoms.

Keywords

• dynamic psychotherapy
• emotional regulation
• psychodermatologic
• psychological symptoms
• quality of life