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‘Neurosis' and the Personal Social Environment

The Effects of a Time-Limited Course of Intensive Day Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

A. C. P. Sims ,
D. H. Heard ,
C. E. Rowe ,
M. M. P. Gill  and
V. Maddock
A. C. P. Sims*
Affiliation:
Strategic Integration; University of Leeds
D. H. Heard
Affiliation:
Strategic Integration; University of Leeds
C. E. Rowe
Affiliation:
Strategic Integration; University of Leeds
M. M. P. Gill
Affiliation:
Strategic Integration; University of Leeds
V. Maddock
Affiliation:
Strategic Integration; University of Leeds
*
∗Academic Unit of Psychiatry, St James's University Hospital, Leeds LS9 7TF
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Abstract

The Interview Schedule for Social Interactions (ISSI) was used to assess the social environment of 65 British inner-city patients suffering from severe neurotic disorder; all patients were offered a 12-week course of intensive day treatment with an educational and psychodynamic basis. Compared with a general population in Canberra, the neurosis sufferers had lower (morbid) scores on the ISSI for the extent and quality of their social relationships. Of the 34 subjects who completed treatment and attended for the post-treatment investigation, 21 attained a PSE score below the level for ‘caseness'. Twenty-five subjects who attended for follow-up at 18–24 months had improved significantly on all four of the standard ISSI measures, although they had not done so immediately after treatment. This suggests that although symptoms may improve at the time of treatment, social relationships improve only over several months.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 3 , March 1993 , pp. 369 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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