Características clínicas e sociodemográficas da clientela atendida em uma clínica-escola de psicologia

TLDR: The study revealed that the clinical and socio-demographic profile of clientele seen in this service is consistent with other training clinics in Rio Grande do Sul and in other states of Brazil.

Abstract: This study aims to delineate the clinical and socio-demographic profile of the clients assisted by a school-clinic of Psychology of a private university in southern Brazil. We assessed the clinical records of 604 patients under individual psychological interventions between 2003 and 2007. The results showed that: a) the majority of patients were women, but among children the majority were of masculine gender; b) the main complaints were of depressive symptoms, but variations were also verified in accordance with age and gender; c) most of the patients had sought psychological care spontaneously; d) dropouts levels were similar to those of other studies in this context; e) no significant associations were found among dropout and age, gender and waiting time. The study revealed that the clinical and socio-demographic profile of clientele seen in this service is consistent with other training clinics in Rio Grande do Sul and in other states of Brazil. The results indicate the overall effectiveness of the service and of the adopted model of brief psychotherapy. Inconsistencies in patient’s records have been responsible for the methodological limitations of the study. The research enabled the adoption of several procedures to improve the quality of records and to support further studies.