The role of mentalizing in psychological interventions in adults: Systematic review and recommendations for future research
Abstract
Mentalizing is the human capacity to understand actions of others and one's own behavior in terms of intentional mental states, such as feelings, wishes, goals and desires. Mentalizing is a transtheoretical and transdiagnostic concept that has been applied to understanding vulnerability to psychopathology and has attracted considerable research attention over the past decades. This paper reports on a pre-registered systematic review of evidence concerning the role of mentalizing as a moderator and mediator in psychological interventions in adults. Studies in adults were reviewed that address the following questions: (a) does pre-treatment mentalizing predict treatment outcome; (b) do changes in mentalizing across treatment predict outcome; (c) does adherence to the principles or protocol of mentalization-based treatment predict outcome; and (d) does strengthening in-session mentalizing impact the therapeutic process via improved alliance, alleviated symptoms, or improved interpersonal functioning? Results suggest that mentalizing might be a mediator of change in psychotherapy and may moderate treatment outcome. However, the relatively small number of studies (n = 33 papers based on 29 studies, totaling 3124 participants) that could be included in this review, and the heterogeneity of studies in terms of design, measures used, disorders included, and treatment modalities, precluded a formal meta-analysis and limited the ability to draw strong conclusions. Therefore,…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a systematic review, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid. Reported size: 3,124 participants or records.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Improving the translation of search strategies using the Polyglot Search Translator: a randomized controlled trial
- Nutritional, Physical, Cognitive, and Combination Interventions and Frailty Reversal Among Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- Clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with COVID-19 severity in patients with haematological malignancies in Italy: a retrospective, multicentre, cohort study
- A randomized, controlled trial of oral propranolol in infantile hemangioma
- Clinical phenotypes of delirium during critical illness and severity of subsequent long-term cognitive impairment: a prospective cohort study
- Increased physical activity improves sleep and mood outcomes in inactive people with insomnia: a randomized controlled trial
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.