Evaluating and feeding back patient treatment response information maximizes treatment outcomes

Mike Lambert About 8% of patients who enter psychotherapy leave treatment more dysfunctional than when they entered. In addition, it appears that an additional 30–40% of patients do not realize any measured benefit from treatment [1]. Unfortunately clinicians’ overly positive evaluation of their own impact on patients is a major problem [2]. Methods aimed at reducing treatment failure by tracking patient treatment response can address these problems [3]. They include the use of brief measures of symptomatic disturbance, interpersonal problems, and social role functioning that are completed by patients as they go…