Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
PLoS One. 2024 May 31;19(5):e0304140. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304140. eCollection 2024.
The Covid-19 pandemic made wearing of face masks mandatory in the psychotherapeutic context. Against this background, the present study aimed to compare the expectations of patients undergoing day-hospital or inpatient treatment regarding wearing a mask in psychotherapy before the start of therapy with the final experience after the end of therapy. The study also investigated the extent to which expectations and experiences were influenced by other factors such as socio-demographic characteristics, patients' general attitudes towards wearing a mask, duration of treatment, or mental health diagnoses.
Patients' expectations and experiences were recorded using two versions of a self-developed questionnaire: the pre-version, which was administered before the start of therapy and recorded expectations, and the post-version, which was administered after the end of therapy and recorded the final experiences. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted for the questionnaire's pre- and post-version. T-tests for paired samples were calculated to compare the patients' expectations regarding the extracted factors with the final experiences. Bivariate correlations were calculated to explore the association of other potential factors with expectations and experiences.
The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure: communication barriers, self-confidence, and infection protection. The communication barriers expected by the patients before the start of the therapy turned out to be significantly higher than ultimately experienced after the therapy. Higher age correlated significantly negatively with expectations and experiences, with less self-confidence expected and experienced in therapy with a mask by older patients. There was a significant positive correlation between the expectations and the duration of treatment. Patients' general attitudes correlated significantly with their expectations and experiences.
Based on the results, wearing a mask does not appear to negatively impact the success of psychotherapy from the patient's perspective. However, patient-specific characteristics also appear to play a role in this context.
Covid-19 大流行使得在心理治疗环境中佩戴口罩成为强制性要求。在此背景下，本研究旨在比较接受日间医院或住院治疗的患者在治疗开始前对心理治疗中戴口罩的期望与治疗结束后的最终体验。该研究还调查了期望和体验在多大程度上受到其他因素的影响，如社会人口统计学特征、患者对戴口罩的一般态度、治疗持续时间或心理健康诊断。
使用两个版本的自我开发问卷记录患者的期望和体验：预版本，在治疗开始前进行并记录期望；后版本，在治疗结束后进行并记录最终体验。对问卷的预版本和后版本进行探索性因素分析。计算配对样本的 t 检验，以比较患者对提取因素的期望与最终体验。计算双变量相关，以探索其他潜在因素与期望和体验的关联。
探索性因素分析显示出三因素结构：沟通障碍、自信和感染保护。患者在治疗开始前预期的沟通障碍明显高于治疗结束后的最终体验。年龄较高与期望和体验呈显著负相关，年龄较大的患者在戴口罩治疗中自我信心较低。期望与治疗持续时间之间存在显著正相关。患者的一般态度与他们的期望和体验显著相关。
基于研究结果，从患者的角度来看，戴口罩似乎不会对心理治疗的成功产生负面影响。然而，患者的特定特征在这种情况下也似乎发挥了作用。
