Avaliação de processo-resultados de terapia cognitivocomportamental para compras compulsivas

Abstract

This Master´s Dissertation discusses the process of therapeutic change in cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT), with emphasis on pathology of compulsive buying. The dissertation consists of a systematic review on psychotherapy for cases of compulsive buying and an empirical study of the change process in a case of CBT. A systematic review of the literature came from the theme of her compulsive buying and psychotherapeutic options. The search found 96 articles, only six of which met the inclusion criteria. The articles found, though few, have pointed out that there are studies being developed for the purpose of testing and validating effective interventions for compulsive buying treatment. Despite the evidence of effectiveness of psychotherapeutic approaches in the treatment of compulsive buying, the scarcity of studies, the lack of comparative studies between different psychotherapies, among other things, indicate the need to implement research on the effectiveness of psychological face to face treatment with this type of psychopathology. The empirical study aimed to evaluate psychotherapy results of a compulsive buyer and to describe the therapeutic process. The research was conducted in a private clinic in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Participants were a therapist, psychologist and expert in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, with over ten years of experience in the field and a patient, adult, married, with symptoms of compulsive buying, coupled with depression. Twelve (12) sessions of psychotherapy were performed, using the approach of CBT. All treatment was recorded on audio, transcribed, and evaluated by a pair of independent judges with the method Psychotherapy Process Q-Set (PQS) for obtaining quantitative descriptions of elements that characterize the therapeutic process, considering patient’s, therapist’s and interaction’ factors. The evaluation of results were obtained through measurements of compulsive buying symptoms (YBOCS-SV), anxiety (BAI), depression (BDI-II) and social adjustment (EAS), performed before, during and after treatment. This study showed that CBT was effective to treat compulsive buying, promoting reductions of dysfunctional behaviors that are typical of this condition, restructuring patient´s dysfunctional cognitions and improving depressive symptoms and social adjustment. The findings do not allow generalizing what factors were most important to these positive results. However, therapeutic alliance, behavioral tasks, patient´s motivation, and therapist´s supportive attitude were essential factors to this process.