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The present study examined variables related to the quality of the therapeutic alliance in out-patients with schizophrenia. More recovery orientation, less self-stigma, and more insight independently were associated with a better quality of therapeutic alliance. Clinical symptoms, adult attachment style, age, and the duration of treatment by current therapist were unrelated.
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Therapeutic alliance in schizophrenia The role of recovery.pdf
The present study examined variables related to the quality of the therapeutic alliance in out-patients with schizophrenia. More recovery orientation, less self-stigma, and more insight independently were associated with a better quality of therapeutic alliance. Clinical symptoms, adult attachment style, age, and the duration of treatment by current therapist were unrelated.
The present study examined variables related to the quality of the therapeutic alliance in out-patients with schizophrenia. More recovery orientation, less self-stigma, and more insight independently were associated with a better quality of therapeutic alliance. Clinical symptoms, adult attachment style, age, and the duration of treatment by current therapist were unrelated.
Therapeutic alliance in schizophrenia: The role of recovery
orientation, self-stigma, and insight
Sara Kvrgic a , Marialuisa Cavelti a , Eva-Marina Beck a , Nicolas R usch b , Roland Vauth c,n a Psychiatric University Clinics Basel, Basel, Switzerland b Department of General and Social Psychiatry, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland c Psychiatric University Clinics Basel, Department of Psychiatric Outpatient Treatment, Claragraben 95, CH-4005 Basel, Switzerland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 23 September 2011 Received in revised form 10 October 2012 Accepted 22 October 2012 Keywords: Therapeutic relationship Goal orientation Service engagement a b s t r a c t The present study examined variables related to the quality of the therapeutic alliance in out-patients with schizophrenia. We expected recovery orientation and insight to be positively, and self-stigma to be negatively associated with a good therapeutic alliance. We expected these associations to be independent from age, clinical symptoms (i.e. positive and negative symptoms, depression), and more general aspects of relationship building like avoidant attachment style and the duration of treatment by the current therapist. The study included 156 participants with DSM-IV diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in the maintenance phase of treatment. Therapeutic alliance, recovery orientation, self-stigma, insight, adult attachment style, and depression were assessed by self-report. Symptoms were rated by interviewers. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that more recovery orientation, less self-stigma, and more insight independently were associated with a better quality of the therapeutic alliance. Clinical symptoms, adult attachment style, age, and the duration of treatment by current therapist were unrelated to the quality of the therapeutic alliance. Low recovery orientation and increased self-stigma might undermine the therapeutic alliance in schizophrenia beyond the detrimental effect of poor insight. Therefore in clinical settings, besides enhancing insight, recovery orientation, and self-stigma should be addressed. & 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Therapeutic alliance is dened as the affective and collaborative bond existing between a therapist and his patient (Svensson and Hansson, 1999). It has also been referred to as the therapeutic bond, working alliance or helping alliance. The theoretical denitions of the alliance have three elements in common: (1) the collaborative nature of relationship, (2) the affective bond between patient and therapist, and (3) the patients and therapists ability to agree on treatment goals and tasks (Bordin, 1979). The quality of the therapeutic alliance is a key predictor of adherence (Lecomte et al., 2008) and was also found to be associated with higher psychosocial functioning, reduced symptom severity and better quality of life (Frank and Gunderson, 1990; Gehrs and Goering, 1994; Svensson and Hansson, 1999). Because of the consistent association between therapeutic alliance and service engagement it is important to identify variables that predict a good therapeutic alliance (Gibbons et al., 2003). But building a strong therapeutic alliance in schizophrenia may be a challenging endeavor due to the nature of the clinical presentation of the illness (Frank and Gunderson, 1990; Evans-Jones et al., 2009). For example, patients may distrust or hold delusional beliefs about their therapist, and therapists may nd it difcult to empathize with patients unusual experience (Evans-Jones et al., 2009). Given these difculties it is important to understand factors which improve or undermine building therapeutic alliance. Because agreement between therapist and patient on treatment goals was found to be important for the development of a strong therapeutic alliance (Martin et al., 2000; Webb et al., 2011) variables undermining goal orientation of the patient may be important to address. Besides impeding effects of depression (Webb et al., 2011) and negative symptoms (Lysaker et al., 2011) on goal orientation of the patients also self-stigma was identied to undermine goal orientation in therapy as well (Corrigan et al., 2009). In contrast, motivational aspects like a strong recovery orientation were identied to facilitate goal orientation in therapy (Waldheter et al., 2008; Corrigan et al., 2004a). Self-stigmatizing means applying negative stereotypes of mental illness to oneself (Corrigan and Watson, 2002) and it is followed by feelings of shame and by coping strategies like secrecy and with- drawal (R usch et al., 2006; Vauth et al., 2007). Further, self-stigma undermines help seeking behavior (Vogel et al., 2006), adherence to psychosocial treatment (Livingston and Boyd, 2010), more generally social relationships (Yanos et al., 2008), and is a risk factor for Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Psychiatry Research 0165-1781/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2012.10.009 n Corresponding author. Tel.: 41 61 699 25 25; fax: 41 61 699 25 35. E-mail address: Roland.Vauth@upkbs.ch (R. Vauth). Psychiatry Research 209 (2013) 1520 psychiatric hospitalization (R usch et al., 2009). Because continuing feelings of unworthiness and incompetency were found to be associated with self-stigma as well as a demoralization in engage- ment in therapy (the why try-effect; Corrigan et al., 2009), all these consequences underline that self-stigma may undermine engage- ment in therapy (Livingston and Boyd, 2010) and the building of a strong therapeutic alliance in schizophrenia, respectively. Recovery as a motivational process (for a review see Cavelti et al., 2011) may promote engagement in therapeutic alliance as it is supposed to facilitate the patients striving for the attainment of individual life goals by successful therapy. Recovery orientation refers to regaining a self-determined and meaningful life in spite of mental illness. It might be achieved by nding hope that important life goals can be attained, re-establishing a positive identity, developing mean- ing in life, taking control of ones life through individual responsibility, spirituality, empowerment, and having supporting relationships (Chiu et al., 2009). Variables already found to be associated with quality of ther- apeutic alliance in individuals with schizophrenia and other forms of severe mental illness (SMI) were patient-related factors including older age (Draine and Solomon, 1996), avoidant attachment style (Dozier et al., 2001; Berry et al., 2008; Kvrgic et al., 2011) and more prior service contact (Klinkenberg et al., 1998) as well as illness- related factors like less severe symptoms (Frank and Gunderson, 1990; McCabe and Priebe, 2003; Lysaker et al., 2011) or higher insight into illness (Johnson et al., 2008; Wittorf et al., 2009; Barrowclough et al., 2010). Actually, insight in patients with schizo- phrenia is the only variable which consistently was associated with patient-rated therapeutic alliance in most studies (Dunn et al., 2006; Wittorf et al., 2009; Barrowclough et al., 2010; Lysaker et al., 2011). Insight is a multidimensional construct and it is dened as the awareness of having a mental disorder, of specic symptoms, and their attribution to the disorder, the awareness of social conse- quences and of need for treatment (Mintz et al., 2003). Low insight was also found to be linked to difculties to form sustaining bonds with others (Lysaker et al., 1998; Francis and Penn, 2001). Lowlevels of insight are a risk factor for nonadherence to treatment, which is associated with poor clinical outcome (Lincoln et al., 2007), but on the other hand, high levels of insight have been linked to depression, hopelessness, suicidal tendency as well as to lowered self-esteem (Drake et al., 2004; Hasson-Ohayon et al., 2009; Restifo et al., 2009). Self-stigma as a moderating variable can be decisive whether more insight leads to better or worse outcome. On the other hand, self- stigma can act as a mediator between insight and outcomes (Lysaker et al., 2007; Staring et al., 2009, Cavelti et al., 2012). Finally, insight is suggested to be positively associated with recovery orientation (Mohamed et al., 2009). Based on these studies, we expected lower self-stigma and higher recovery orientation to uniquely contribute to the variance of better quality of therapeutic alliance above and beyond of possible con- founding variables such as younger age, clinical symptoms, avoidant attachment style, and duration of treatment by the current therapist. Second, because of the consistent ndings of an association of insight and therapeutic alliance, we hypothesize that insight contributes additional explanatory power to the model of therapeutic alliance, independently from recovery orientation and self-stigma. 2. Methods 2.1. Participants and procedure The recruitment took place in Community Mental Health Centers (CHMC) in the region of Basel, Switzerland, between February 2009 and March 2010. Patients between 18 years and 65 years of age and diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder in the maintenance phase of their treatment (i.e. dened as an absence of an acute psychotic episode including a rst episode of schizophrenia and no change of medication in the last 6 weeks) were asked for study participation. Diagnoses were conrmed by the Structured Clinical Inter- view for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV Axis I Disorders (Wittchen et al., 1997). After the procedure was fully explained, written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Patients were informed that their therapists were blind to their answers. Exclusion criteria were a primary diagnosis of alcohol or substance dependency, an organic syndrome or a learning disability, inadequate command of German to engage in therapy with a German-speaking therapist, and/or unstable residential arrangements. The information of the exclusion criteria were obtained from prior reports and prior interviews with the therapists. For all interviewer-based rating scales, three research psychologists (MA), who were blind to the results of self-ratings and the assessments of the attending clinicians, were previously trained until a concordance of Cohens kappa0.80 was achieved (Shrout and Fleiss, 1979). Participants received a nancial compensation of 40CHF (approximately 42 USD) in order to minimize selection bias by a high refuser rate. Therapists were psychiatric trained nurses, psychiatrists, and psychologists. To be able to suggest a more stable state of the therapeutic relationship only patienttherapist pairs were included, which have worked together more than 3 months or a longer time. The study was approved by the local ethics committee. 2.2. Treatment Treatment was not standardized but leaned on the suggestions of Dickerson and Lehmans (2011) supportive therapy. According to these authors, supportive counseling in our clinical units includes providing reassurance, offering explana- tions and clarication, and giving advices and suggestions. Treatment was done within a multiprofessional team of in problem solving and behavioral skills training trained nurses, social workers, psychiatrists and psychologists, depending on changing treatment needs in the course of illness. The therapists focus on current problems in everyday life functioning and persistent symptoms, assessed pharmacological needs and concerns raised by having a persistent schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The mean case load of therapists was about 40 patients. 2.3. Measurements All measures employed have shown to be valid and reliable in samples of patients with schizophrenia or other severe mental illnesses in prior studies (Kay et al., 1987; Birchwood et al., 1994; Hall, 1995; Beck et al., 1996; Corrigan et al., 1999; Corrigan et al., 2006; McGuire-Snieckus et al., 2007; Kvrgic et al., 2011). Measures were applied once during the ongoing therapy. Therapeutic alliance was measured using the German version of the Scale to Assess the Therapeutic RelationshipPatients Version (STAR-P; McGuire-Snieckus et al., 2007). The STAR is based on the pantheoretical model of therapeutic alliance (Catty et al., 2007) and it is a self-rating instrument with 12 items comprising three subscales: Positive Collaboration, Positive Clinician Input, and Non- Supportive Clinician Input. Items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale, with 0never to 4always. Before scoring, scores for the Non-Supportive Clinician Input subscale were reversed. A total score can be obtained by summing up the relevant subscale scores. Higher scores denote a better alliance. In the current study Cronbachs alpha for the total score was 0.71. We only applied the patients version of STAR, as a higher predictive impact on therapy outcome was demon- strated for patient rated alliance than it was shown for therapist rated alliance in people with schizophrenia (Horvath and Symonds, 1991; Bentall et al., 2002). Recovery orientation was assessed with the Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS; Corrigan et al., 1999) which is a self-rating 5-point Likert scale with response categories from 1strongly disagree to 5strongly agree. A factor analysis resulted in ve factors, namely Personal Condence, Willingness to Ask for Help, Goal and Success Orientation, Reliance on Others, and Not Dominated by Symptoms totaling 24 items (Corrigan et al., 2004b). A total score can be calculated by summing up all items. In the present study, Cronbachs alpha was0.78. We measured self-stigma using the 10-item Self-Esteem Decrement Due to Self-Stigma subscale of Corrigans Self-stigma in Mental Illness Scale (Corrigan et al., 2006; R usch et al., 2006). The measure included statements such as I currently respect myself less because I cannot be trusted and I currently respect myself less because I am unpredictable. Research participants were asked to respond to each item using a 9-point agreement scale (9strongly agree). In the current study, Cronbachs alpha for the Self-Esteem Decrement Due to Self- Stigma subscale was 0.84. Insight was measured with the 8-item Birchwood Insight Scale (BIS; Birchwood et al., 1994), including the subscales Perceived Need for Treatment, Awareness of Illness, and Relabeling of Symptoms as Pathological. Items are rated from 0not right to 2right, higher sum scores indicating more insight. Cronbachs alpha for the total score was 0.60. Positive and negative symptoms were assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS; Kay et al., 1987), a semi-structured interview composed by 30 items, which assesses positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and general psychopathology. High scores indicate high levels of symptoms. In the present S. Kvrgic et al. / Psychiatry Research 209 (2013) 1520 16 study, Cronbachs alpha was 0.67 for the Positive- and 0.74 for the Negative- Symptoms subscale. Adult attachment style was measured by the Psychosis Attachment Measure (PAM; Berry et al., 2006), a self-rating scale that measures attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety specically in patients suffering with psychotic experi- ences. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale with response categories from 0strongly disagree to 4strongly agree. Total scores were calculated for each dimension by averaging individual item scores, with higher scores reecting higher levels of anxiety and avoidance. A high overall total score reected a general insecure attachment style. The measure showed good psychometric characteristics (Kvrgic et al., 2011, Berry et al., 2006). Cronbachs alpha reached 0.71 for the Attachment Avoidance subscale and 0.73 for the Attachment Anxiety subscale. Depression was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II; Beck et al., 1996). It consists of 21 items, each with four statements indicating increasing severity (4-point Likert scale from 0 to 3). By summing up single items, a total score is achieved ranging from 0 to 63; a high total score indicates high levels of depressive feelings. Cronbachs alpha reached 0.90. To evaluate psychosocial functioning, we applied the Modied Global Assess- ment of Functioning (Hall, 1995). This measure assesses the individuals overall functioning evaluated by the therapist on a rating scale ranging from 0 to 100. A score of 100 on the M-GAF means superior functioning whereas a score of 40 or below means severe impairments in several areas, such as work or school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood. Some measurements were translated by the authors (STAR-P, RAS, Self-Esteem Decrement Due to Self-Stigma subscale, BIS, PAM). The adaptation of the English version into German was carried out according to the International Test Commis- sion Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests. So our adaption process took full account of linguistic and cultural differences among the populations for whom the adapted version of the instrument is intended (International Test Commission 2010). The translation of the English versions of the instruments into German was carried out according to the forwardbackward procedure (Stieglitz, et al., 1998). After a member of the research team translated the original version into German, a bilingual PhD student translated the German version back into English without referring to the original English instrument. The differences between the back- translated and the original English version were minimal and the nal version was developed by consensus. In order to avoid multicollinearity, only total scores (STAR-P, RAS, BIS, BDI-II) or single subscales (Self-Stigma Due to Self-Esteem Decrement, Avoidant Attach- ment Style, PANSS positive and negative symptoms) were included in the statistical analyses. 2.4. Statistical analyses In order to control for diagnostic category before lumping the data together, a t-test for independent samples was performed to examine if individuals with schizophrenia disorders differed from individuals with schizoaffective disorders with regard to the therapeutic alliance ratings. Before running regression analyses, prerequisites for this method were analyzed. Subsequently, a multiple regression analysis was conducted. STAR-P total score was entered as depended variable. All possible confounding variables found to be associated with therapeutic alliance were entered as a rst block in hierarchical regression analyses: age, duration of treatment by the current therapist, depression, positive and negative symptoms, and avoidant attachment style. In a second step, recovery orientation and self-stigma were entered together in the regression analysis. Both variables were found to inuence goal orientation of patients with schizophrenia (Corrigan et al., 2004a, 2009) and so may have an impact on therapeutic alliance, too. Additionally, insight was entered separately in the third step in the regression model because it is the only variable in previous studies, which was found to be consistently correlated with patient-rated therapeutic alliance (Wittorf et al., 2009; Barrowclough et al., 2010; Lysaker et al., 2011). Because insight was also found to be correlated with self-stigma (Lysaker et al., 2007; Staring et al., 2009; Cavelti et al., 2012) and associated with recovery orientation (Mohamed et al., (2009)) we wanted to prove whether insight would have an additional effect on therapeutic alliance over and above to recovery orientation and selfstigma. All data analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows, version 19.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). All statistical tests were two-tailed and signicance levels were set at po0.05. 3. Results 3.1. Study sample and measures One hundred and two participants (65.4%) were diagnosed with schizophrenia and 54 (34.6%) with schizoaffective disorder. There was no signicant difference between the diagnosis-groups according to the STAR-P scores (t0.74, d.f. 151, p0.46). Therefore, and because we did not focus on an acute phase patient sample presuming confounding effects of strong affective symptoms, both patient samples were taken together for the subsequent analyses. The mean age of the patients was 44.5 years (S.D. 11.67) and 102 (65.4%) were male. The interval between the appointments was for the majority of patients 23 weeks (n66; 42.3%), for a smaller proportion 1 week (n27; 17.3%) or 4 weeks (n27; 23.7%); and only a minority of patients meet the therapists more frequent than once/week (n9, 5.8%) or had intersession interval longer than 4 weeks (n17; 10.9%). The majority of participants lived alone (n88; 56.41%) were not in a stable partnershipdened as lasting 3 months or longer (n119; 76.3%)and had no children (n121; 77.6%). The mean years of education was 12.31 (S.D. 2.93). The majority of participants were either unemployed (n90; 57.7%) or were in sheltered employment (n48; 30.8%) and received a governmen- tal disability annuity (n127; 81.4%). The mean duration of illness was 18.63 years (S.D. 11.82), mean age of illness onset was 27.79 (S.D. 13.53). The average duration of treatment by the current therapist was 4.29 (S.D. 4.50) years. On average, parti- cipants had been hospitalized 8.21 times (S.D. 6.45) and had received 7.12 years (S.D. 6.56) of outpatient treatment in our CMHCs. The majority (n154; 98.7%) were treated with anti- psychotic medication, most of them with an atypical antipsycho- tic (n93; 59.6%). The majority of the therapists were nurses (n9; 42.9%) or psychiatrists (n9; 42.9%) and a smaller sub- group psychologists (n3; 14.3%). Mean and standard deviation of all measures are summarized in Table 1. 3.2. Regression analyses In a rst step, prerequisites for the regression analysis were examined: Linearity (measured with a scatterplot) between pre- dictors and dependent variable was given, and are available by the rst author by request. The errors for different response variables did not show different variances (i.e. no heteroskedas- ticity, checked with a scatterplot). We further checked on this issue by testing normal distribution of the residuals with KolmogorovSmirnoff-Test (KS-Z1.011, p0.259), indicating normal distribution of the residuals. We assessed multicollinear- ity by examining tolerance and the Variance Ination Factor (VIF). Multicollinearity exists when tolerance is below 0.1 and VIF is greater than 10 or an average much greater than 1. In our case, there was no multicollinearity. Table 1 Range of scores, means and standard deviation of applied measures. Range of scores M (S.D.) Therapeutic alliance (STAR-P) 048 37.26 (7.71) Recovery (RAS) 24120 90.00 (14.48) Self-esteem decrement due self-stigma (SSMIS) 1090 25.73 (13.23) Insight (BIS) 012 9.54 (2.36) Symptom severity (PANSS) Positive Symptoms 749 13.87 (4.88) Negative Symptoms 749 13.91 (4.97) Depression (BDI-II) 063 11.07 (9.86) Avoidant attachment style (PAM) 03 1.29 (0.57) Social functioning (M-GAF) 0100 49.82 (10.25) Note: Mmean; S.D. standard deviation. STAR-PScale to Assess Therapeutic Relationship-Patient Version; RASRecovery Assessment Scale; SSMISSelf- esteem decrement scale of the SSMIS; BISBirchwood Insight Scale; PANSSPosi- tive and Negative Syndrome Scale; BDI-II Beck Depression Inventory; PAM Psychosis Attachment Measure; M-GAFModied Global Assessment of Functioning. S. Kvrgic et al. / Psychiatry Research 209 (2013) 1520 17 The regression data are presented in Table 2. The analyses revealed that the rst block with the control variables explained a signicant amount (6%) of the STAR-P total score (adj. R 2 0.060, F(6, 149)2.87, p0.01). Within the rst block, the PANSS positive symptoms subscale contributed uniquely to the models validity. The block with the variables recovery orientation and self-stigma added signicantly to validity with a further 12% of explained variance of the STAR-P total score (adj. R 2 0.182, F(8, 147)5.32, p0.000). Within the second block, the RAS total score and the SSMIS subscale Self-Esteem Decrement Due to Self- Stigma contributed uniquely to validity, whereas PANSS positive symptom was not signicantly associated with therapeutic alli- ance anymore. This change of signicance points to a mediation effect of recovery orientation and/or self-stigma between the association of positive symptoms and therapeutic alliance (for detailed explanation of mediation effects see Baron and Kenny, 1986). Finally, the addition of the third block with the BIS total score to the equation yielded a signicant validity increment of 4% (adj. R 2 0.220, F(9, 146)5.62, p0.000). In summary, recovery orientation, insight and self-stigma explain about 16% of the variance of the therapeutic alliance. In order to elucidate whether recovery orientation or self-stigma or both factors mediate the negative effect of positive symptoms on therapeutic alliance, two separate linear regression analyses were conducted. In both analyses, the independent variable was the PANSS positive symptoms subscale. In the rst analyses, we used the RAS total score as dependent variable. There was no signicant relation between positive symptoms and RAS total score (adj. R 2 0.00, F(1, 154)1.67, p0.20). In a second analysis we used the SSMIS subscale Self-Esteem Decrement Due to Self-Stigma as dependent variable. The analysis reveals a signicant association between positive symptoms and self-stigma (adj. R 2 0.076, F(1, 154)13.83, p0.00). Due to these results, it is suggested that the negative impact of positive symptoms on therapeutic alliance may be mediated by self-stigma. 4. Discussion In a large sample of outpatients with schizophrenia or schizo- affective disorder, a stronger recovery orientation, less self-stigma and more insight contributed uniquely to a better therapeutic alliance. Recovery orientation and self-stigma could explain a total of 12% of the quality of therapeutic alliance, and insight another 4%. A total of 22% of variance could be explained by our regression model. In the maintenance phase of treatment, these associations were stronger than relationships with positive and negative symptoms, avoidant attachment style, age, and depression respectively. Also the duration of treatment by the current therapist did not inuence the quality of the therapeutic alliance. This result might be supported by the ndings of Wittorf et al. (2010) which could show that patients alliance ratings are relatively stable over the course of treatments like CBT or supportive therapy. The results of the present study further suggest that self- stigma mediates the negative effect of positive symptoms on therapeutic alliance. Positive symptoms have already been found to be signicantly related with self-stigma (Lysaker et al., 2007; Yanos et al., 2008) and the results of the present study support these ndings. The mediation effect also might be a reason, why the association between symptoms and patient therapeutic alliance ratings are so far inconsistent. For example McCabe and Priebe (2003) found hostility to explain 28% of the variance of patient alliance ratings. In contrast, Couture et al. (2006) did not report signicant associations between clinical baseline charac- teristics and patient-rated therapeutic alliance. Further studies are needed for an additional clarication of mediating effects self- stigma, positive symptoms and therapeutic alliance. According to our hypothesis, insight into illness explained addi- tional variance of the therapeutic alliance, although recovery orien- tation and self-stigma were already integrated in the model. Regarding that previous studies on this issue all used different measures (Wittorf et al., 2009; Barrowclough et al., 2010; Lysaker et al., 2011) and some of them also controlled for positive symptoms (Wittorf et al., 2009) insight appears to be a moderately but consistent predictor for therapeutic alliance when rated by patients. Compared to other studies investigating outpatients with schizophrenia, our sample demonstrates with 66% males compar- able gender distribution (R ossler et al., 2005; Salize et al., 2009), similar scores in role-functioning and symptom control (GAF; Villalta-Gil et al., 2006; Rossi et al., 2009), psychotic symptoms (PANSS; Chatterjee et al., 2003; Morrison et al., 2004), and recovery orientation (RAS; Corrigan and Phelan, 2004) indicating that our outpatient-sample could be regarded as representative for people with schizophrenia treated in CMHC. Our study has some methodological limitations. Results of the regression analyses should be interpreted with caution in a causal way because of the cross-sectional nature of the study design. A longitudinal design is needed in order to test directionality of the results. The non-signicant associations of negative symp- toms, avoidant attachment style, as well as depression could be due to the restricted range of values whilst focusing a clinical Table 2 Hierarchical regression analysis with STAR-P total score as dependent variable. Variables to enter Step 1 (Beta) Step 2 (Beta) Step 3 (Beta) Age 0.013 0.035 0.046 Duration of treatment by the current therapist 0.106 0.058 0.042 Positive Symptoms (PANSS) 0.170 n 0.150 0.146 Negative Symptoms (PANSS) 0.034 0.061 0.067 Depression (BDI-II) 0.071 0.040 0.036 Avoidant Attachment Style (PAM) 0.114 0.026 0.039 Recovery orientation (RAS) 0.369 nn 0.393 nn Self-esteem decrement due to self-stigma (SSMIS) 0.170 n 0.150 n Insight (BIS) 0.161 n Adjusted R 2 0.060 0.182 0.220 R 2 change 0.122 nn 0.038 nn Note: STAR-PScale to Assess Therapeutic Relationship-Patient Version; PANSSPositive and Negative Syndrome Scale; BDI-II Beck Depression Inventory; PAMPsychosis Attachment Measure; RASRecovery Assessment Scale; Self-esteem decrement scale of the SSMIS; BISBirchwood Insight Scale. R 2 Proportion of explained variance. n po0.05. nn po0.01. S. Kvrgic et al. / Psychiatry Research 209 (2013) 1520 18 more stable sample in maintenance phase of treatment. Further studies e.g. with inpatients or younger individuals with a rst episode of schizophrenia are needed to establish the generality of the results. Regarding that only 16% of the variance could be explained by recovery orientation, self-stigma and insight, we suggest that the assessed set of variables supposed to be asso- ciated with therapeutic alliance may not be exhaustive, so a multitude of other variables may be important for patients like previous experiences with therapists, negative attitudes to med- ications (Barrowclough et al., 2010) or factors related to the therapist like empathy, expertness, attractiveness or trustworthi- ness (Evans-Jones et al., 2009). Also the more or less high scores of therapeutic alliance ratings may induce the problem of restricted range of values so that associations between predicted variable and predicting variables may underestimate the role of the predicting variables. A further limitation is that some measures were translated into German by the authors and not validated yet (i.e. STAR-P; BIS; SSMIS; RAS). Validity and reliability of these measures are not known and therefore the results of the present study should be interpreted cautiously. Nevertheless, the Cron- bachs alphas of the measures in the present study were all acceptable to good. Finally, future studies should also assess quality of the therapeutic alliance from the therapist perspective, as therapists and patients perspectives of alliance may not always be convergent (Fitzpatrick et al., 2005; Wittorf et al., 2009). Our ndings have some important implications for clinical practice in outpatient treatment. To build a powerful therapeutic alliance, not only focusing insight by educational interventions may be important, but also addressing recovery orientation and self-stigma. Overcoming entrapment in illness and improving recovery orientation in schizophrenia has already been outlined in some more recent cognitive-behavioral approaches for psycho- sis (CBTp; Shahar et al., 2004; Birchwood et al., 2005). So, Andresen et al., (2003) suggested that the therapist should support the patient in four recovery processes: nding hope; re- establishment of identity; meaning in life; and responsibility for recovery. These processes could be supported by assisting the patient to develop more effective symptom management strate- gies by CBTp (Vauth and Stieglitz, 2007; Lencer et al., 2011). By doing this, the patient might strengthen his or hers self- efcacy and promote recovery orientation. Self-stigma should be addressed as goal of its own in CBT (Birchwood et al., 2007) by cognitive challenging strategies, especially in the phases of treat- ment where patients work out personal meaningful treatment goals, and by this furthering empowerment of the patient (Vauth et al., 2007; Kleim et al., 2008). Especially stigma-oriented approaches like the cognitive-behavioral intervention of Knight et al. (2006) might be applied. This approach coaches more specically functional coping skills, such as training how to advise signicant others about ones illness in a meaningful and effective way. Summarizing, CBTp may be a helpful method to work with patients with schizophrenia, even if there are some mixed results on its effect on outcome (see for an overview: Wykes et al., 2008; Dickerson and Lehman, 2011). In conclusion, low recovery orientation and increased self-stigma might undermine the therapeutic alliance beyond the detrimental effects of poor insight. 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