Approaching Psychotherapy Case Studies in a Metasynthesis: Deficit vs. Conflict in Treatment of Medically Unexplained Symptoms

Interpersonal dynamics and therapeutic relationship in patients with functional somatic syndromes: A metasynthesis of case studies.

“…If the intervention was successful, patients learned that their emotional reactions mattered to others and that expressing their feelings would not result in a rejection or an emotional breakdown of the other (2, 6). It should be noted that therapists implemented numerous other interventions aimed at correcting maladaptive cognitions and behaviors, integrating of traumatic experience, learning new ways of coping, and so forth (for metasyntheses of interventions in FSS, see Krivzov et al, in press; Řiháček & Čevelíček, 2019). However, the strategic relational position of being a different (reliable) other seemed to provide an especially solid base for the therapeutic alliance and to facilitate change.…”

“…For the data analysis, we followed a modified procedure of thematic synthesis (Krivzov et al, in press; Thomas & Harden, 2008), which consists of (a) close reading of the text and line-by-line coding that yields “descriptive codes,” (c) developing “descriptive themes,” and (c) developing overarching “analytical themes.” No data analysis software was used. The first step involved close reading of the text and identifying passages that described interpersonal events between the patient and the others, as well as between the patient and the therapist.…”

“…Unfortunately, case studies are scattered across different databases and until recently have been hard to locate (Meganck, Inslegers, Krivzov, & Notaerts, 2017). Yet due to methodological and technological advances in the field, it is now possible to systematically locate and analyze sizable samples of high-quality peer-reviewed cases (Desmet et al, 2013; Krivzov, Hannon, & Meganck, in press). This makes a systematic investigation of interpersonal dynamics in case studies of FSS now possible.…”

“…Recently, metasynthesis methodology has been adapted especially for case studies (Krivzov et al, in press; Willemsen et al, 2015). The data from case studies have a somewhat limited applicability in an aggregative type of metasynthesis since case studies are produced by different research teams in different contexts and may represent idiosyncratic rather than typical findings (Levitt, 2018; Levitt, Pomerville, & Surace, 2016).…”

The single case archive: Review of a multitheoretical online database of published peer-reviewed single-case studies.

“…As the number of published case studies is increasing, there is a growing interest in exploring the possibilities of aggregating case studies to generate more generalizable knowledge. Krivzov, Hannon, et al (2021) argue that metasynthesis can contribute to the sustainability of qualitative research by aggregating findings on issues that have already been investigated and protecting vulnerable populations from unnecessary research interventions. In their chapter, they discuss and illustrate how to conduct rigorous metasynthesis of single-case studies.…”