Kx. Smyrnios et Rj. Kirkby, LONG-TERM COMPARISON OF BRIEF VERSUS UNLIMITED PSYCHODYNAMIC TREATMENTS WITH CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 61(6), 1993, pp. 1020-1027
Thirty children and their parents were assigned randomly to either tim
e-unlimited or time-limited (12 sessions) psychodynamically oriented t
reatments or to a minimal-contact control group. All groups showed sig
nificant improvements from pretest to posttest. Comparisons between gr
oups at posttest on parental measures of family functioning showed tha
t changes reported by the minimal-contact control group were significa
ntly greater than those of the time-unlimited group. When assessments
from pretest to 4-year follow-up were compared, all groups improved si
gnificantly on therapist measures of goal attainment, but only the min
imal-contact control group reported significant improvements on severi
ty of target problems and measures of family functioning. The results
of this study suggest that long-term therapy does not necessarily prov
ide more effective therapy. These findings have important implications
for clinical practice, service delivery, and research, particularly i
n the present climate of financial restraint in health care.