INTERPERSONAL FACTORS IN BRIEF TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION - FURTHER ANALYSES OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL-HEALTH TREATMENT OF DEPRESSION COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH-PROGRAM

Previous analyses of data from the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program indicate minim al differences in therapeutic outcome among 3 brief treatments for dep ression, but patients' pretreatment level of perfectionism had a signi ficant negative relationship with residualized measures of clinical im provement. The present analyses indicate that the quality of the thera peutic relationship reported by patients early in treatment contribute d significantly to the prediction of therapeutic change. The quality o f the therapeutic relationship was only marginally predictive of thera peutic gain at low and high levels of perfectionism, but significantly predicted therapeutic gain at moderate levels of perfectionism. These findings suggest that the extensive efforts to compare different manu al-directed treatments need to be balanced by commensurate attention t o interpersonal dimensions of the therapeutic process.