GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY WITH PSYCHIATRIC OUT-PATIENTS

Abstract

Psychotherapeutic resources for psychiatric out-patients are overtaxed and inefficient. These are two sides of the same coin, since if the treatment methods were more expeditious and efficient, we would be better able to handle the volume of patients who request help. The overloading of most outpatient facilities, evidenced by long waiting lists, is generally recognized; their inefficiency may be less known. The inadequacy of current psychotherapeutic methods appears in the large number of patients referred to psychotherapy who drop out before receiving an appreciable amount of treatment and in the low improvement rate for those who remain in treatment. In clinics who reported data on this, thirty to sixty-five per-cent of patients drop out of treatment prematurely. The improvement rate is equally discouraging. An analysis of the treatment results at the Phipps Clinic found that although forty-two per cent of the out-patients treated are rated as improved at the time of termination of contact, only seventeen percent
are discharged with the rating "maximum benefit, improved." This is consistent with reports from other clinics.