A comparison of dose-response curves in cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic psychotherapies

Changes in patient- and therapist-rated process items, and patient-rated sy mptom severity assessed over a maximum of 30 sessions of psychodynamic or c ognitive-behavioral psychotherapy were compared in an outpatient mental-hea lth clinic. Patients' ratings in psychodynamic psychotherapy on two of the process items were superior to ratings by patients in cognitive-behavioral therapy, and interactions with time were discovered for an interpersonal it em. Comparisons between patients who reported their initial symptom severit ies as most severe and those with less severe symptoms also were made, with results indicating differential effects of treatment according to percepti ons of symptom severity. interactions between length of stay in treatment a nd number of sessions also were investigated. Findings indicated that patie nts benefit from psychotherapy over lime and support the usefulness of a co ntextual model for psychotherapy funding. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.