EVALUATION OF INTELLIGENCE AND MOOD BEFORE AND AFTER GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY

Objective: Group psychotherapy in the treatment of common mental illnesses are an effective treatment option. Members to be included in group psychotherapy are expected to have insight skills. Although the relation between insight and intelligence is predicted, one of the difficulties of clarifying the relationship is that it can not be infered by tests that evaluate intelligence. Another difficulty is the likelihood of common mental illness negatively affecting intelligence assessments. When the insight skills of the group members are assessed in the process of being included in group psychotherapy, it is highly likely that the evaluation of the intelligence and the psychological symptoms are likely to contribute to the formation of group composition. In this context, in this study, it is aimed to compare the intelligence levels and mood symptoms at the beginning and at the end of the treatment of the patients included in the closed group psychotherapy and to investigate the relationship between them. Method: The sample (n = 22) was composed of 3 consecutive groups of patients admitted to the 2month treatment program in Psychosomatic Department of Ankara University Medical School Psychiatry Department. The follow-up evaluations were completed in 17 patients. Beck Depression and Anxiety (BDI and BAI) scales were used in the evaluation of mood symptoms and Wecshler Adult Intellegence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) is used to evaluate intelligence. Results: The mean age of the sample was 41.8 ± 12.3, and the mean duration of education was 10.1 ±4.1 years. 68.2% of the sample was women. Mean total, verbal and performance IQ scores in initial evaluation were 86.2±13.7; 91.4±13.5 and 81.4±15.0, respectively. The mean BDI and BAI scores were 19.8±12.2 and 19.2±14.1 respectively. In the second evaluation, the mean total, verbal and performance IQ scores were 86.4±12.4, 87.9±13.4 and 84.7±15.6 respectively. Performance IQ was significantly higher compared to the initial evaluation (t = -2,150, Df = 15, p < 0.05). The BDI scores were found to be significantly different (t = 2,535, df = 15, p <0.05) but the BAI score difference between two evaluations was not found to be statistically significant. The relationship between IQ scores and mood states was not significant. Conclusion: Individuals who received group psychotherapy improved their performance intelligence scores and the mood symptoms. The difference in the performance intelligence scores of the patients can be related to the learning effect as it is not related to mood symptom