BACKGROUND: Since 1995 we have developed a depth-psychological, experience- and expression-oriented approach to group therapy for psychotic patients--"Phantasy Therapy"--complementary to the main-stream emphasis upon behavioural, learn- and goal-oriented methods.AIMS: A group psychotherapy for acute and remitting patients suffering from psychosis or schizophrenia is statistically evaluated under treatment-as-usual in a public psychiatric clinic.METHODS: Phantasy Therapy is compared to an alternative treatment (art therapy = AT) and a placebo group (PG; weekly ward gatherings) via cognitive testing before and after each session.RESULTS: (1) Improvement of cognitive deficits over the first 4 sessions: session 1 (effect size d = 0 between all 3 groups) versus session 4 (d = 0.2 and 0.4 of Phantasy Therapy over AT and PG, respectively). Averaged over the first 4 sessions, the cognitive test showed tendential improvements for Phantasy Therapy and AT compared to PG. (2) Self-rating (sum of 4 item scores) averaged over the first 4 sessions showed a small effect. Patients judged themselves more improved after Phantasy Therapy compared to AT (d = 0.2) or PG (d = 0.3); tendential d (0.1) of AT over PG. (3) Psychosocial communication skills considerably improved during Phantasy Therapy, slightly worsened during AT, and remained relatively unchanged during PG. The effect sizes of Phantasy Therapy for values averaged over the first 4 sessions was 0.6 compared to AT and 0.4 compared to PG.CONCLUSIONS: Phantasy Therapy is better than PG and at least as good as AT. These results should be hardened by further studies.
Adult Art Therapy