Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is Associated with Sustained Reduction in Health Care Utilization and Cost.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is Associated with Sustained Reduction in Health Care Utilization and Cost. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2020 Nov 03;: Authors: Yonatan-Leus R, Strauss A, Cooper-Kazaz R Abstract Our objective was to examine effectiveness and efficiency of psychodynamic psychotherapy on reduction in health care utilization and cost while controlling for age, gender, and year. Health care utilization and cost were examined yearly in 1675 patients from two years before outpatient psychotherapy (i.e. baseline) to three consecutive years after psychotherapy, in a naturalistic longitudinal design. A multi-level analytic approach (LMLM) was applied to account for repeated measures effect and missing data. In the year prior to psychotherapy, there was a significant increase in total cost compared to baseline (14.8%) and in use of health care services (primary and specialist doctors' visits and outsourced referrals). In the first year following therapy there was a significant decrease in total cost (10%) and in use of health care services (all doctors' visits, imaging and outsourced referrals). The decrease was to baseline levels or lower, and was maintained for two additional years. Psychiatric medication usage increased significantly after psychotherapy and remained so. The overall cumulative decrease in total cost per patient over three years after therapy was 3665.92 NIS equaling 69% average cost of psychotherapy. Further cost sav...
Source: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Clin Psychol Psychother Source Type: research