Clinicians' predictions of length of psychotherapy

The study examined therapists' accuracy in predicting the length of individual outpatient psychotherapy for 109 clients and attempted to identify variables associated with predicted and actual treatment lengths. The mean predicted treatment length (9.7 months) was significantly longer than the mean length of actual treatment (6.6 months). Therapists correctly predicted treatment length to the nearest month in 26 percent of the cases. Predictions were more accurate for older clients. Treatment tended to be shorter for clients with less than a high school education. Therapists more often predicted shorter treatments for clients with an adjustment disorder and those with less education. Predicting treatment length appears to be difficult.