[Attainment of generic therapy goals in a specialized group psychotherapy for phobic outpatients]

Individual therapy goals of psychotherapy patients either focus on symptom relief (disorder specific) or on improvements also in other functional areas (generic). The present study with 62 outpatients in a cognitive behavioral group psychotherapy (CBGT) investigated whether patients attain their disorder specific goals better than their generic therapy goals. Results indicated that patients reached disorder specific goals to a higher degree than the generic goals, although the group treatment specifically targeted the disorder specific goals. Implications of the results for the assessment and therapy of phobic patients are discussed.