Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T02:32:38.019Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Outcome Study of Group Psychotherapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Diana Bovill*
Affiliation:
Burnley General Hospital, Casterton Avenue, Burnley, Lancs BB10 2PQ

Abstract

In 1975 a long-term follow-up was undertaken on patients collected as in-patients, treated and studied in 1962–64 (Bovill, 1972). Treatment was by didactic group psychotherapy and relaxation. Treatment was for a mean of six months and of 30 sessions, treatment remained available on demand for a mean of two years after discharge from attendance. In 1975 30 treated patients and 24 control patients were traced out of the original 36 in each group. The criterion of success was, as before, the inverse of days spent re-hospitalized. The success ratio fell from 7: 1 in 1962–64 to 2½: 1 in 1965–74 and to 2: 1 in the single year 1974. This fall was expected in view of the known spontaneous recovery rate operating on the controls.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1977 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bovill, D. (1965) Continuity of Psychotherapy in the Neuroses. M.D. thesis, London.Google Scholar
Bovill, D. (1972) A trial of group psychotherapy for neurotics. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 285–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bovill, D. (1973) Teaching neurotic patients to treat themselves. Practitioner, 210, 679–84.Google Scholar
Brill, N. G. (1964) A comparative study of the effectiveness of psychotherapy. 6th International Congress of Psychotherapy, London.Google Scholar
Sloane, R. B., Staples, F. R., Cristol, A. H., Yorkston, N. J. & Whipple, K. (1975) Psychotherapy versus Behavior Therapy. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wallace, H. E. R. & Whyte, M. B. H. (1959) The natural history of the psychoneuroses. British Medical Journal, i, 144–7.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.