[The cost and utilization of psychotherapy in community-based mental health services. A multicentre study in five Italian areas].

Aims: To investigate the prevalence of psychotherapy intervention in five Italian Centres for Mental Health. Analysing sociodemographic characteristics, geographical differences, frequencies of psychotherapy interventions, and the costs of these interventions.

Methods: Five Italian Community-based Psychiatric Services collected data from 1250 patients during October 2002. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics and GAF scores were collected at baseline. All psychiatric contacts during the following six months were recorded and categorised into 24 service contact categories. A comparison between patients who received or did not receive psychotherapy was made.

Results: The socio-demographic characteristics of patients are very similar to those found in previous studies; there is a great difference in the number of psychotherapy treatments between the five areas. Psychotherapy patients use different services compared to the other patients, and their care cost less.

Conclusions: This study provides a description of the provision of psychotherapy by Italian Mental Health Services. Further research is required into this topic.