Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:1295-1305
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
The cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy: a plan for research
JL Krupnick and HA Pincus
Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
The authors assess gaps in the current knowledge base on psychotherapy
research and the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy. Despite the
considerable and increasingly sophisticated body of research on the
efficacy of psychotherapy, there is an alarming paucity of studies focusing
on the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy. This problem is particularly
evident in the absence of studies exploring nonclinical effects of
treatment and the broader range of domains in which intervention may have
an impact. Initiation of research on the cost- effectiveness of
psychotherapy is important for ensuring good clinical practice and
data-based policy formulation. What is needed is greater specificity
regarding the populations and problems for which psychotherapy can provide
the greatest benefits, identification of the variables, measures, and
methodological approaches that are most useful in yielding these important
data, and comprehensive quantification of the costs and effects of
psychotherapy.
