[The Therapeutic Relationship in Forensic and General Psychiatric Settings].

INTRODUCTION: Therapeutic relationship in forensic psychiatry is believed to be affected by the coercive setting and the role conflict of the therapists as both treaters and court-appointed experts. The aim of the study was to examine and compare the therapeutic relationship in forensic and general psychiatric settings.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: 52 forensic patients and 66 general psychiatric patients filled in the Psychopathy Personality Inventory - Revised (PPI-R), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems - German Version (IIP-D), the Questionnaire on Motivation for Psychotherapy (Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Psychotherapiemotivation (FPTM)) as well as the Working Alliance Inventory - Short Revised (WAI-SR). We applied descriptive analyses, calculated univariate t -tests as well as multivariate T -tests and performed general linear models.

RESULTS: The quality of the therapeutic alliance does not differ significantly between forensic and general psychiatric patients. Moreover, patients of forensic psychiatry consider therapeutic techniques applied by their therapists as more valuable for achieving their therapeutic aims than patients of the general psychiatry.

DISCUSSION: The therapeutic relationship in forensic psychiatry is as viable as in general psychiatry. This can be regarded as a result of the long-term therapy in the context of forensic psychiatry which allows more time to be spent on relationship building than in a general psychiatry setting where therapy is limited to a few weeks.