Treatment duration prediction: Client accuracy and its relationship to dropout, outcome, and satisfaction

The relationship of clients' expected and actual treatment duration was inv estigated for 230 clients in private practice settings. Clients both expect ed and attended a relatively low number of visits. These patterns were disc repant with therapists' duration expectations. A stepwise regression analys is indicated that clients' expected number of visits was the single best pr edictor of clients' actual number of visits and that history of eating diso rder, therapist's degree, and client's years of education also contributed to actual number of visits (R =.420). Clients who attended fewer sessions t han expected had lower satisfaction, better outcome on two of six measures, and were more often identified dropouts.