Case Study
The Effects of Group Psychotherapy for Patients with Psychosomatic Skin Diseases : A Qualitative Study Using a Modified Grounded Theory Approach
2019 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 164-172
Details
2019 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 164-172
Background : Psychosomatic skin disorders are strongly influenced by stress on their onset and during their course. In the previous studies, group psychotherapy aimed to improve stress coping skills was revealed to have the possibility of encouraging patients to cope with stress in more positive ways.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of group psychotherapy on the patients’recognitions of their problems, stress coping styles, and their skin conditions, using semi-structured interviews.
Patients and methods : We recruited patients who had attended the group psychotherapy at least twice in the past year. In the interviews we asked them the following main questions ; “How was the group experience?” and “What are the influences of the group psychotherapy on their daily life?”. The interview data were analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach (M-GTA).
Results : Seven patients participated in the current study and each patient went through a semi-structured interview between June and November 2016. The participants were all female with a mean age of 45 years. The most frequent diagnosis was atopic dermatitis (3 patients), followed by urticaria, prurigo, multiple alopecia areata, nummular eczema (1 patient each). The mean frequency of the attendance of the group psychotherapy was 3.6 times.
As a result, we found five categories in total regarding the group psychotherapy. Among them, three categories ; ≪The influences of observation and interaction with other patients≫, ≪The effects of learning and experiencing stress coping skills≫, and ≪The attitudes toward their problems≫ were directly related to the group psychotherapy, while two categories ; ≪The effects of treatments of skin diseases and psycho-educations about the stress≫, and ≪The attitudes toward skin treatments≫ were directly related to the dermatological treatments.
The two categories, ≪The influences of observation and interaction with other patients≫ and ≪The effects of learning and experiencing stress coping skills≫, showed interactions with ≪The effects of treatments of skin diseases and psycho-educations about the stress≫. In addition, these two categories positively influenced ≪The attitudes toward their problems≫. The latter showed also an interaction with ≪The attitudes toward skin treatments≫ which was influenced by ≪The effects of learning and experiencing stress coping skills≫.
Conclusion : The group psychotherapy seemed to have positive effects on patients’ recognitions of their problems, the stress coping styles, and the treatment behavior of their skin diseases, in association with regular dermatological treatments.
