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Group therapy was shown to be an effective and economic intervention. To date few instruments exist to empirically assess mechanisms of therapeutic change in group therapy. The Group Therapy Process Questionnaire for Therapists (FEPiG-T) measuring change mechanisms in group therapy as viewed from the perspectives of therapists was developed and validated in this study based on the conceptualizations of Grawe,Yalom and Bordin and in reference to the previously developed measure for patients. The FEPiG-T subscales show good internal consistencies and small to large correlations with convergent measures. Subscales at beginning of therapy correlated with improvement of interpersonal problems over time. Further associations with symptom scales remained more vague. However, intersections with the established version for patients allow routinely implemented evaluation of the 2 perspectives in clinical practice, but inevitably need careful interpretation where the instruments differ in their factor structure., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

In analogy to somatic medicine, modern psychiatry strives to measure the outcome of treatment and care. In order to warrant an effective therapy, this request is reasonable from the standpoint of both the therapist and the patient as well as hospitals or insurance companies. However, how can I measure friendliness, empathy or humanity, the "being available for somebody"? For sure, psychiatric DRGs, which connote efficacy based on periods of time, are by no means suitable. The present study analyses routine clinical data of an ergotherapeutic questionnaire, as an aid to estimating treatment quality. The naturalistic character of this data collection during daily routine may be an advantage to assessing the quality of results in psychiatry.

Narrative exposure therapy (NET) applied by Neuner et al. on populations affected by war and natural disaster is compared to research data and intervention strategies developed by others. Questions are raised about the cultural sensitivity of Neuner's diagnostic instruments, the reductionist focus on PTSD which does not sufficiently take into account the complex after effects of trauma and the comprehensive psychosocial needs of affected populations. Currently available data do not yet provide convincing evidence that NET is effective or superior to other intervention strategies., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

It was the aim of the study to investigate different factors of group experience in relation to therapy effects and to prove the predictive validity of the Group Experience Questionnaire (GEQ); for this purpose for each scale of the GEQ the values of later "Responders" and "Non Responders" were compared. The sample consisted of 50 patients with psychosomatic diseases who where treated with outpatient integrated psychodynamic group therapy. We found that the GEQ is able to differentiate between successful and less successful patients. Especially the therapeutic factors "autonomy and optimism" as well as "well-being" are of high predictive value. Contrary to former investigations the therapeutic factor "cohesion" was less important, which could hint at the fact that a medium amount of cohesion might be sufficient for an effective process of treatment.

The scientific basis of psychotherapeutic findings involves a number of difficulties which are above all connected with the insufficient state of basic research in this field. In this situation, significant advances can only be expected on the basis of a systematic long-term investigation and research programme. This applies in particular to the problems of personality and efficiency diagnostics and to group process research. On the basis of some intermediate results, it is shown that by the combined and systematic use of procedures a number of possibilities for the differentiated recording of the complex processes in therapeutic groups can be obtained.

Based on a one-and-half year experience in a small group setting with drug dependent adolescents the change of group structure, the functioning of the group for its members, the leader's position within the group and the therapeutic relationship are analysed. In its beginning the group develops what can be called a "symbiotic group structure". Its transformation into that of a "working group" is the main task of therapy. The underlying processes can be compared with those of the beginning individuation in early childhood. Ego development begins, as M. Mahler and other modern investigators have shown, with the perception of one's own body and its representation in early ego formation. Using self awareness techniques, as we have done, is in this context a theoretical as well as practical well founded approach to the problems of psychic dependence.