Health and Medical Psychology Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Counseling

The Effectiveness of Intensive Short-Term Psychodynamic Therapy on the Cognitive-Attentional Syndrome and Its Indicators in Patients with Psoriasis

https://doi.org/10.61838/ijbmc.v13i7.1150
Intensive short-term psychodynamic therapy cognitive-attentional syndrome psoriasis

Authors

  • Behrouz Behrouz PhD Candidate in Health Psychology, Department of Psychology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
  • Alireza Shokrgozar
    dralirezashokrgozar@iau.ac.ir
    Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Clinical Psychology, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran.
  • Mansour Ali Mahdi Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
  • Mojgan Sepahmansour Professor, Department of Psychology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
  • Hossein Bigdeli Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, East Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
In Press
Quantitative Study(ies)

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of intensive short-term psychodynamic therapy on the cognitive-attentional syndrome and its indicators in patients with psoriasis.

Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study used a pretest-posttest design with a three-month follow-up. The statistical population consisted of all patients with plaque psoriasis who visited specialized dermatology and hair clinics affiliated with Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences in 2024–2025. Among them, 40 individuals were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to either an experimental group (20 participants) or a control group (20 participants). In addition to a researcher-made demographic information checklist, the Cognitive-Attentional Syndrome Questionnaire (Wells, 2009) was used for data collection. In the experimental group, the treatment program was delivered in 8 group sessions (one 1-hour session per week), whereas the control group did not receive this intervention. Data were analyzed using mixed repeated-measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS version 26.

Findings: Compared with the control group, intensive short-term psychodynamic therapy improved the indices of positive beliefs about worry/perception of worry (F = 14.039, η² = 0.420), threat monitoring/perception of threat (F = 12.829, η² = 0.281), maladaptive coping (F = 15.414, η² = 0.619), negative metacognitive beliefs (F = 10.904, η² = 0.223), and overall cognitive-attentional syndrome (F = 36.011, η² = 0.487) in patients with plaque psoriasis (p < 0.05). These positive effects also remained stable at the three-month follow-up stage.

Conclusion: The techniques and exercises of intensive short-term psychodynamic therapy can be used as an effective complementary therapeutic approach to improve the quality of life and daily functioning of patients with psoriasis, especially with regard to cognitive issues related to the disease.