| Despite empirical support linking positive patient expectancies and adaptive treatment processes and outcome, expectations have been traditionally undervalued, and expectancy-focused treatment strategies are rarely employed in a systematic and explicit manner. The present pilot-scale randomized clinical trial examined preliminarily the immediate and short-term impact of adding a manualized expectancy-enhancement (EE) interview (Constantino, Klein & Greenberg, 2006) to a standard initial cognitive therapy (CT) session for depression. Fourteen depressed adults were randomly assigned to either CT + EE or to CT plus a nonspecific intake augmentation (CT + IA) control group. The treatments were administered by graduate trainees, and the groups were compared on early treatment outcome expectancies, perceptions of treatment credibility, hopelessness, beliefs about one's ability to terminate negative mood states, and depressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, there was no notable between group effect on outcome expectations, treatment credibility, and ability to terminate negative mood states. However, as predicted, CT + EE patients reported less early treatment hopelessness and less early treatment depression than CT + IA patients. Thus, the findings provide partial preliminary support for the efficacy of the initial-session EE augmentation. However, all findings need to be interpreted cautiously given the preliminary nature of this small sample pilot study. |
