Comparison of the effectiveness of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP) and existential therapy on the signs and symptoms of psychosomatic patients referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran

Psychosomatic disorders are an important issue related to physical and mental health. Therefore, research is important to identify effective treatment methods for these disorders. Therefore, the aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of intensive short-term psychodynamic therapy and existential therapy on the signs and symptoms of psychosomatic patients referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran.

The current research was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a two-month follow-up with a control group. The research population included all psychosomatic patients referred to this hospital in 1400. 45 people who met the criteria for entering the research were selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups of dynamic psychotherapy, existential therapy and control. The research tool included Takata and Sakata (2004) Psychosomatic Complaints Questionnaire, which was completed by all three groups in three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Also, psychodynamic and existential therapy protocols were implemented in the experimental groups. The data was analyzed using repeated measure analysis of variance using SPSSV19 software.

The results showed that psychodynamic therapy compared to existential therapy reduced the signs and symptoms of psychosomatic patients (F=11.79 and P=0.001) and this treatment was more effective.

Finally, it can be said that both treatments were effective, and psychodynamic therapy was more effective than existential therapy, and therefore, the use of these therapies can help in reducing the symptoms of psychosomatic patients.