Institutional therapeutic alliance and its relationship with outcomes in a psychiatric day hospital program.

The article shows the results of a longitudinal study aimed to explore the institutional therapeutic alliance (ITA) that is the alliance formed by a patient and all the therapeutic staff. Fifty five patients who have psychiatric disorders in partial hospitalization were evaluated at admission (global functional level, social support, symptomatic condition, and treatment expectancies), at discharge, and after 3 months. ITA was assessed after 1 week of treatment and at discharge, from patient's and staff's perspectives. Preliminary findings suggest that the ITA represents a specific phenomenon different from the classical therapeutic alliance (patienttherapist), which would be particularly relevant for the treatment of patients who are severely disturbed.