36 - Psychotherapy

Summary

This chapter presents an overview of the major types of psychotherapy provided to individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders by clinicians. Many factors influence the effectiveness of psychotherapy, including the quality of the therapeutic relationship, patient variables such as readiness to change, type and degree of psychological disturbance, expectations of the therapist, as well as specific strategies and techniques of the therapy. Psychotherapy is a form of treatment in which the therapist attempts to improve the patient's symptoms and functioning using specialized professional dialogue. The main categories of psychotherapies likely to be useful for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders include: behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, systems and family, motivational interviewing/ stages of change, supportive and psychodynamic, and group psychotherapy. Cognitive behavior therapy has a strong evidence base and has been studied in populations with neurologic disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS), traumatic brain injury (TBI), Parkinson's disease (PD), and stroke.