Comparison the Effectiveness of Online Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) and Existential Therapy on the Defense Mechanisms of Psychosomatics Patients

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of online intensive short-term psychotherapy (ISTDP) and existential therapy on the defense mechanisms of psychiatric patients in the counseling center of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran. This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a two-month follow-up with a control group design. The statistical population of the present study included all psychiatric patients who were referred to the counseling and psychology centers of this hospital in 2021. A total of 45 people who met the inclusion criteria were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups dynamic psychotherapy, presence therapy, and control. The research instrument included Anders et al.'s (1993) Defense Styles Questionnaire (DSQ-40), which was completed by all three groups in three stages, pretest-posttest, and two-month follow-up. Psychodynamic and existential therapy protocols were also performed in the experimental groups. Data were analyzed using repeated measures and multivariate analysis of variance using SPSSV19 software. The results of the analysis of variance of repeated measurements showed that there is a significant difference between the groups in defense mechanisms (P<0.01) and online psychodynamic therapy compared to existential therapy improved the developed defense mechanisms and immature defense mechanisms and disturbed defense mechanisms. Finally, based on the results of this research, it can be said that short-term online psychodynamic therapy is more effective than existential therapy on defense mechanisms, and therefore introducing this model to counselors, psychologists, therapists, researchers, and other specialists is so helpful undoubtedly.