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Brief therapy in adult psychiatry
Author(s) -
Macdonald Alasdair J.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6427.1994.00806.x
Subject(s) - referral , outcome (game theory) , residence , multidisciplinary team , psychiatry , group psychotherapy , medicine , multidisciplinary approach , psychology , psychotherapist , family medicine , nursing , demography , social science , mathematics , mathematical economics , sociology
Forty‐one of forty‐four referrals to a multidisciplinary team providing brief therapy in adult psychiatry were followed up after one year. Questionnaires were sent to attenders and their general practitioners. A good outcome was reported in 29 cases (70%) while four cases (10%) were worse. Good outcome was linked with more therapy sessions and having specific goals for treatment. Lower social class did not predict poor outcome, unlike other forms of psychotherapy. Benefit was not linked to age, sex, place of residence, duration of problem, source of referral, those attending, inpatient status or lapse from treatment. Longstanding problems did slightly less well. The ‘worse’ group were younger and all four were female. Training of the team took place during therapy at little extra cost without any detriment to outcome. These findings have implications for the team's approach and for the provision of psychotherapy services in general.