CLINICIAN PREDICTIONS OF LENGTH OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

The study examined therapists' accuracy in predicting the length of in dividual outpatient psychotherapy for 109 clients and attempted to ide ntify variables associated with predicted and actual treatment lengths . The mean predicted treatment length (9.7 months) was significantly l onger than the mean length of actual treatment (6.6 months). Therapist s correctly predicted treatment length to the nearest month in 26 perc ent of the cases. Predictions were more accurate for older clients. Tr eatment tended to be shorter for clients with less than a high school education. Therapists more often predicted shorter treatments for clie nts with an adjustment disorder and those with less education. Predict ing treatment length appears to be difficult.