Outcome in psychotherapy evaluated by independent judges

To overcome common limitations in assessing the outcome of psychotherapy, the following method was used: independent assessment by teams of experienced psychotherapists; individualized measures of outcome; and videotaped clinical interviews to allow the judges to rate, at one sitting, a patient's clinical state before and after eight months of therapy. Agreement between the judges' ratings was low both for the severity of the clinical state and for its outcome. Possible reasons for this low agreement are discussed.