The Effect of Psychoanalytic Group Psychotherapy on Patients Living with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease - Single Case Analysis of Mr A

The thesis is based on the effect of psychoanalytic group psychotherapy on amnestic MCI patients where a control group had no treatment. The Geriatric Depression Scale and Neuropsychological test were given to the experimental and control groups. Follow-up tests were given to the two groups eight months after the study. The experimental group also received pre and post Rorschach tests. There were two amnestic, one vascular MCI and one early, one moderate AD patient in the group. Therapy lasted for 13 months, twice a week, one and a half hours in each session. Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests showed no significant differences. The experimental group showed tendencies of progress by the Friedman test in certain items. The data is analysed qualitatively through analysis of 12 sessions out of 117 audiotaped sessions using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Reliability and triangulation of the study is checked through comparison of pre-post Rorschach test results of Mr A with his transcribed 12 sessions by the researcher and by two psychoanalysts. Mr A reverted back to cognitively normal individual in his post-test and kept this improvement in his follow-up test results.