Repeated long-term follow-up of long-term psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. First findings of the Stockholm outcome of psychotherapy (STOP) project.

In a quasi-experimental design, four groups were compared, (a) patients who had terminated psychoanalysis of more than two years' duration; (b) patien ts who had terminated individual psychotherapy of more than two years' dura tion; (c) patients who had terminated various kinds of low-dose psychothera pies; (d) patients who had not been in any recent psychotherapy. Repeated f ollow-up questionnaires, roughly one and two years after termination, showe d that psychoanalysis and long-term therapy patients had superior outcomes on measures of symptom, social adjustment, and existential attitudes, in co mparison with patients without any recent therapy or patients who had been in various kinds of low-dose therapies. During the second year of follow-up , the differentiation among the groups increased, with psychoanalysis devel oping in a more positive way than the other treatments.