Revista Brasileira de Psicoteratia

INTRODUCTION: In order to expand the descriptive classification of symptoms in mental disorders, and to bring empirical consistency to psychodynamic/psychoanalytic models, a multiaxial instrument called Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD-2) has been developed, allowing psychotherapy research to encompass the complexity of the relationships between conditions and factors that determine the phenomena of mental pathologies, from a psychodynamic point of view.
METHODOLOGY: Longitudinal naturalistic study with 80 outpatients with severe mental disorders, who were treated with a) psychodynamic psychotherapy, b) interpersonal psychotherapy and c) cognitive behavioral psychotherapy. All patients were interviewed at baseline and after six months, according to OPD-2's criteria. They all also completed two self-report measures (WHOQOL-BREF and SCL-90R) to evaluate symptoms and quality of life at each assessment point.
RESULTS: According to OPD-2's axis I, better personal resources, psychosocial support, and introspective capacity significantly correlated with fewer symptoms in the BDI's and SCL-90's measures. Also, symptoms' reduction and quality of life's domains significantly correlated with items that assessed OPD-2's "desire for care versus autarchy" and "identity" conflicts. There was also a significant correlation between all items that evaluate structural functioning according to OPD-2 and the SCL-90R's psychotic index. Regarding predictive validity analysis, we observed mean differences in the structural functioning of patients with a history of suicide attempt and previous history of hospitalization.
DISCUSSION: results support that OPD-2's criteria significantly correlates with data from validated self-report measures. When administered by trained raters, OPD-2 displayed good quality in assessing patients' conflicts and structural issues. This evidence suggests that the Brazilian version of OPD-2 is a valid and reliable instrument in evaluating psychodynamic properties and can be a useful tool within the clinical and research contexts.

Descritores: OPD-2; Validity; Reliability; Symptoms' Reduction; Quality of Life; Conflict; Structure; Severe Mental Disorders