The therapeutic effects of providing patient progress information to therapists and patients

Abstract

Patient-focused research systems have been developed to monitor and inform therapists of patients' treatment progress in psychotherapy as a method of enhancing outcome. The current study examined the effects of providing treatment progress information to only therapists and to both patients and therapists during the course of psychotherapy. Outpatients (N=201) at a hospital-based psychotherapy clinic were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: treatment as usual, therapist feedback, and patient-therapist feedback. Patients in the 2 feedback conditions demonstrated significantly greater improvement at termination than those in the treatment-as-usual condition, with no average increase in sessions attended. These findings suggest that providing feedback to patients and therapists may be a viable approach to enhancing patient outcomes. © 2004 Society for Psychotherapy Research.