A PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF THERAPEUTIC ALLIANCE AND DUALLY DIAGNOSED INPATIENTS

The therapeutic alliance between the therapist and the inpatient duall y diagnosed with major mental illness and substance abuse disorder has rarely been studied These dually diagnosed patients constitute a ''no ntraditional'' population for psychotherapy research. The authors used a modified version of the California Psychotherapy Alliance Scale (CA LPAS) in this preliminary study to measure the therapeutic alliance be tween a cohort of 10 inpatient schizophrenic substance abusers and the ir therapists and examined its relationship with outpatient follow-up. Six patients followed up with outpatient treatment and four did not. Paradoxically, the patients who did not follow zip reported a stronger alliance with their inpatient therapists than the patients who did fo llow up.