Brief group psychotherapy with chronic hemodialysis patients.

The authors selected 11 chronic hemodialysis patients for a brief group psychotherapy program, the primary objective of which was to produce congnitive and affective changes pertaining to the illness. Each of the 10 therapy sessions lasted 1/2 hours and was conducted while the patients were actually on dialysis. Three therapists rated outcome as "good," "fair," or "poor" on 10 objective criteria, and subjective impressions of the group experience were obtained from each patient. The study demonstrated the benefical effects of group therapy, although there was no statistically significant difference between patients in the three outcome categories.