AUTHOR=Botschek Tim , Monninger Maximilian , Schäfer Dennis , Cevik Rabia , Memis Kübra , Müller Ulrike , Monninger Martina , Brosig Burkhard 

TITLE=Evaluation of multidimensional pediatric-psychosomatic inpatient therapy: a pilot study comparing two treatment modalities

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1022409

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1022409

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Multidimensional pediatric-psychosomatic inpatient treatment can be considered a highly relevant concept in the German healthcare system. It is of high relevance in the care of youth with mental disorders and in the support of patients with chronic somatic conditions. 
Studies on the effectiveness of pediatric-psychosomatic inpatient therapies are rare, though, contrasting their clinical significance. Therefore, the study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two different pediatric-psychosomatic inpatient treatment concepts. The clinics are comparable regarding the treated disorders, which include dissociative, mood, and somatoform disorders, and psychological factors associated with chronic somatic conditions.
Multidimensional treatment in both clinics includes individual and family therapy, along with group, art, music, creative, and physiotherapy, although they are realized differently. Both clinics differed regarding their treatment philosophy, which in Clinic A is psychodynamic, flanked more strongly by behavioral therapy elements, while Clinic B considers itself more strongly in the psychoanalytic and family-dynamic tradition. 
Each clinic recruited 25 patients for the study. They completed two questionnaires both at admission and discharge, which measure general behavioral and emotional problems respectively difficulties in emotion perception and processing. The effectiveness of the treatment was examined by conducting one-sample t-test and effect sizes for each clinic. To obtain information on differentiating treatment effects, mixed ANOVAs were calculated. For estimating its influence, the treatment duration was taken into account as a covariate calculating an ANCOVA.
In both settings, treatment effects can be observed regarding internalizing problems. For alexithymia, no effects were seen in Clinic B, while in Clinic A, there was a significant reduction. When comparing both clinics, the ANOVAS showed significant interaction effects displaying advantages for Clinic A for both the internalizing and total behavioral problems and alexithymia. Taking into account the treatment duration as a covariate, those effects level out. Significant differences between the clinics are no longer statistically detectable.
The present study provides powerful indications of the effectiveness of multidimensional pediatric-psychosomatic inpatient therapy, which seems suitable for alleviating the general symptom burden and problems in identifying and processing emotions. Furthermore, the results indicate that an increased treatment duration may contribute to more pronounced effects.