Outpatient Psychotherapy Reduces Health-Care Costs: A Study of 22,294 Insurants over 5 Years.

Background: The project "Quality Assurance in Ambulatory Psychotherapy in Bavaria" (QS-PSY-BAY) focuses on the quality assurance of outpatient psychotherapy (OPT) in Germany in terms of symptom reduction and cost reduction under naturalistic conditions. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of psychotherapy in terms of pre-post cost reduction.

Method: The health-care costs of N = 22,294 insurants over a 5-year period were examined in a naturalistic longitudinal design.

[Typical patterns of depressive disorders during outpatient psychotherapy and their prediction].

Objectives: Are there typical patterns of outpatient psychotherapy among depressed patients? What characterizes patients with different patterns?

Methods: We examined N= 548 patients with primary depressive disorders using a naturalistic design. Using a latent-state-mixture model and depression measures at baseline, therapy end and 1-year follow-up we found a total of five patterns. Subgroups were compared with respect to sociodemographic and treatment-related variables.

[Non-completion of insurance-funded outpatient psychotherapy: frequency, risk factors, outcome].

Objective: Because premature discontinuation of psychotherapy limits the effectiveness of the interventions, in a naturalistic design we examined the prevalence, predictors, and outcome of premature discontinuation.

Methods: The sample included N = 584 patients with various mental disorders. Risk factors were identified using regression analysis.

Benefits and challenges in practice-oriented psychotherapy research in Germany: the TK and the QS-PSY-BAY projects of quality assurance in outpatient psychotherapy.

Objective: Two patient-focused long-term research projects performed in the German outpatient psychotherapy system are focused on in this article. The TK (Techniker Krankenkasse) project is the first study to evaluate a quality assurance and feedback system with regard to its practical feasibility in German routine care. The other study ("Quality Assurance in Outpatient Psychotherapy in Bavaria"; QS-PSY-BAY) was designed to test a new approach for quality assurance in outpatient psychotherapy using electronic documentation of patient characteristics and outcome parameters.

[Extensions of the outpatient psychotherapy: a study about patient, therapist, treatment, and therapy course characteristics].

Due to the treatment costs, extensions of the standard therapy duration are a matter of critical examination. This study investigates which factors characterize patients with treatment extensions in the German health system and how effective these extensions are for a reduction of the patients' symptoms. We analysed a disorder heterogeneous sample of 810 patients.