Treatment Beliefs in Patients with Mental Disorders in Psychosomatic Rehabilitation

Abstract

Abstract. Background: The efficacy of inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation in Germany can be considered proven. However, a significant number of patients with mental disorders remain unsatisfied with rehabilitation or being non-responders. Illness beliefs, as the core element of the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation (CSM), are widely known as predictors of various health outcomes. Yet, little is known about treatment beliefs as an extension of the CSM and their impact on health outcomes. Aim: As treatment beliefs differ in relation to the treatment, this study aimed to explore rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs in psychosomatic rehabilitation patients with mental disorders before inpatient admission. Thus, knowledge of the concept of rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs will be added. Methods: N = 10 semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted in September/October 2018. A purposive sampling approach was chosen based on the criteria gender, age, and diagnosis. Participants were asked about their rehabilitation expectations starting with an open narrative question. Interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Participants had a mean age of 48.3 years ( SD = 9.42); five participants were female and five male. 9 main themes with 32 subthemes as components of the rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs were identified: reasons for rehabilitation, conditions within the clinic, rehabilitation planning, organization of the rehabilitation, the content of the rehabilitation, results of the rehabilitation, concerns, expectations toward one’s behavior, and contact to other patients. Limitation: Our sample was too small to analyze the data for different subgroups. Conclusion: Results show that rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs are multidimensional, addressing different aspects of psychosomatic rehabilitation.

Illness Beliefs, Treatment Beliefs, and Fulfilled Treatment Expectations in Psychosomatic Rehabilitation: Associations with Patient Satisfaction

“…27,28 Concretely, psychosomatic-specific rehabilitation related treatment beliefs refer to expectations relating to the process of rehabilitation (eg, organization and content of rehabilitation), expectations relating to the results of rehabilitation (eg, symptom reduction or vocational participation), expectations towards one's own behaviour during therapy (eg participating actively in therapies), and expectations to rehabilitation-related concerns (eg negative reactions by others). 29 These results fit well with psychotherapy research, where outcome expectations and expectation about the process of therapy have been identified as the main patient expectancy factors. 30 The aim of our study was to investigate the association of illness beliefs and rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs with patient satisfaction in psychosomatic rehabilitation.…”

“…Rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs were assessed with the Rehabilitation Treatment Beliefs Questionnaire-Psychosomatic (RTBQ-Psych). 36 Based on the results of an explorative qualitative study of patients in psychosomatic rehabilitation, 29 this questionnaire assesses different aspects of rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs. 30 items form six scales: (1) outcome expectations (example item "I expect this rehabilitation will make me feel better in general.…”

“…Rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs were assessed with the Rehabilitation Treatment Beliefs Questionnaire–Psychosomatic (RTBQ–Psych). 36 Based on the results of an explorative qualitative study of patients in psychosomatic rehabilitation, 29 this questionnaire assesses different aspects of rehabilitation-related treatment beliefs. 30 items form six scales: (1) outcome expectations (example item “I expect this rehabilitation will make me feel better in general.”), (2) process expectations regarding participation and treatment structure (example item “I expect to be involved in the goal setting for this rehabilitation by the doctor.”), (3) process expectations regarding information (example item “I expect the information about my illness and treatment to be sufficient.”), (4) process expectations regarding leisure time and social contacts (example item “I expect to establish new contacts.”), (5) concerns (example item “I am concerned the rehabilitation will overburden me.”), and (6) necessity (example item “Without this rehabilitation, my illness would get worse.”).…”

Kontextfaktoren der patient*innenseitigen Selbstregulation in der psychosomatischen Rehabilitation – eine Querschnittsanalyse vor Rehabilitationsbeginn

“…der patient*innenseitigen Selbstregulation und deren Zusammenhänge mit Kontextfaktoren in der psychosomatischen Rehabilitation untersuchen. So zeigen Studien, dass Rehabilitand*innen in der psychosomatischen Rehabilitation diverse Annahmen zu ihrer Behandlung haben, was laut CSM dem rehabilitationsbezogenen Behandlungskonzept entspricht [29]. Auch für das rehabilitationsbezogene Behandlungskonzept belegen Studien bereits den Einfluss auf das Rehabilitationsoutcome in der psychosomatischen Rehabilitation [8,9].…”

Correction to von der Warth et al., 2021

“…Correction to von der Warth et al, 2021 The article entitled "Treatment beliefs in patients with mental disorders in psychosomatic rehabilitationa qualitiative analysis" by Rieka von der Warth, Anne Nau, Matthias Rudolph, Matthias Stapel, Jürgen Bengel, and Manuela Glattacker (European Journal of Health Psychology. Advance online publication, https://doi.org/10.1027/2512-8442/a000087) has now been published as an open access article with "Ó The Author(s)" and under a CC BY 4.0 license.…”