Expectancy and outcome in prescriptive vs. exploratory psychotherapy

Client ratings of the credibility of prescriptive and exploratory therapies were compared, and correlated with clinical improvement. Both expectancies and outcomes favoured prescriptive therapy in the first, but not the second, period of a cross-over design, and modest correlations were obtained between credibility and improvement. Regression analysis suggested that the impact of expectancy on outcome was secondary to the treatment effect rather than its cause.