OBJECTIVE Although interpersonal problems are assumed to play an important role in the treatment of depression and anxiety, meta-analytic attempts to explore the association between interpersonal problems and outcome in psychotherapy for these patients are missing. This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analytic synthesis of the association between patients' baseline interpersonal problems and outcome in psychotherapy for depressive and anxiety disorders. METHOD We conducted a three-level meta-analysis (i.e., disaggregating sampling variance, within-study variance, and between-study variance) of the interpersonal problems-outcome prediction (IPOP; as measured by the total distress factor of Inventory of Interpersonal Problems). RESULTS We found 40 effect sizes (ESs) nested within 21 primary studies. The three-level model showed a significant aggregated effect size of IPOP, r = -.13, SE = 0.02, 95% CI [-.18, -.09]; t(39) = -5.71, p < .001; d = -0.27, with greater interpersonal distress being associated with worse psychotherapy outcome. Results showed significant heterogeneity across effect sizes with considerable variability across studies (I² = .39) and to a lower extent across reported outcomes (I² = .19). Graphical measures did not show evidence of a substantial publication bias. CONCLUSIONS This meta-analysis showed that baseline overall interpersonal problems are a small but robust negative predictor of psychotherapy outcome. Therapists might benefit from exploring patients' interpersonal problems at the beginning of therapy to enhance their prognostic inferences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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人际关系问题作为抑郁症和焦虑症心理治疗结果的预测因子：多层次荟萃分析。

目的 虽然人际问题被认为在抑郁和焦虑的治疗中发挥着重要作用，但缺乏探索人际问题与这些患者心理治疗结果之间关系的荟萃分析尝试。本研究旨在对患者的基线人际问题与抑郁症和焦虑症心理治疗结果之间的关联进行系统回顾和荟萃分析综合。方法 我们对人际问题结果预测（IPOP；通过人际问题清单的总痛苦因子来衡量）进行了三级荟萃分析（即分解抽样方差、研究内方差和研究间方差） ）。结果 我们发现 21 项初步研究中有 40 种效应量 (ES)。三水平模型显示IPOP的聚合效应大小显着，r = -.13，SE = 0.02，95% CI [-.18，-.09]；t(39) = -5.71，p < .001；d = -0.27，更大的人际困扰与更差的心理治疗结果相关。结果显示，不同研究之间的效应大小存在显着的异质性（I² = .39），不同报告的结果之间存在较小程度的差异（I² = .19）。图形测量没有显示出存在重大出版偏见的证据。结论 这项荟萃分析表明，基线总体人际关系问题是心理治疗结果的一个小但强有力的负面预测因素。治疗师可能会受益于在治疗开始时探索患者的人际关系问题，以增强他们的预后推断。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2023 APA，保留所有权利）。