The effectiveness of psychotherapy: the Consumer Reports study
Abstract
Consumer Reports (1995, November) published an article which concluded that patients benefited very substantially from psychotherapy, that long-term treatment did considerably better than short-term treatment, and that psychotherapy alone did not differ in effectiveness from medication plus psychotherapy. Furthermore, no specific modality of psychotherapy did better than any other for any disorder; psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers did not differ in their effectiveness as treaters; and all did better than marriage counselors and long-term family doctoring. Patients whose length of therapy or choice of therapist was limited by insurance or managed care did worse. The methodological virtues and drawbacks of this large-scale survey are examined and contrasted with the more traditional efficacy study, in which patients are randomized into a manualized, fixed duration treatment or into control groups. I conclude that the Consumer Reports survey complements the efficacy method, and that the best features of these two methods can be combined into a more ideal method that will best provide empirical validation of psychotherapy.
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Psychological interventions have a long history of successful treatment of patients suffering from mental health and certain medical conditions.
“Psychological interventions have a long history of success in management of both mental illness and chronic medical symptoms and conditions, including depression, migraine headache, chronic pain, and inflammatory bowel disease [1, 2].”
From Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Transdiagnostic Behavioral Intervention for Mental Health and Medical Conditions. (2017) · cites this paper as [2]
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“If a form of psychotherapy was shown to be superior to waitlist, we still do not know whether this method would produce changes beyond any that might occur because of the non-specific factors of psychotherapy, i.e. rapport, expectation of gain, and sympathetic attention (Seligman 1995).”
An experimental study of a virtual reality counselling paradigm using embodied self-dialogue
Slater, M., Neyret, S., Johnston, T., Iruretagoyena, G., Crespo, M. Á. D. L. C., Alabèrnia-Segura, M., Spanlang, B., & Feixas, G. (2019) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-019-46877-3 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
A General Systems Theory of Marriage: Nonlinear Difference Equation Modeling of Marital Interaction
Gottman, J. M., Swanson, C., & Swanson, K. R. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0604_07 · Cited by 156 · see citing works
“Consistent with these conclusions, the recent Consumer Reports study of psychotherapy (Seligman, 1995) reported that marital therapy received the lowest marks from psychotherapy consumers.”
Improving mental and physical health care through Quality of Life Therapy and assessment
Frisch, M. B. (2000) · Social indicators research series · doi:10.1007/978-94-011-4291-5_10 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
The Effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD With Refugees in a Community Setting
Schulz, P. M., Resick, P., Huber, L., & Griffin, M. (2006) · Cognitive and Behavioral Practice · doi:10.1016/j.cbpra.2006.04.011 · Cited by 148 · see citing works
EMDR 12 years after its introduction: Past and future research
Shapiro, F. (2001) · Journal of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1002/jclp.1126 · Cited by 149 · see citing works
“This is advocated for all clinical methods as efficacy based upon statistical significance in rigorous studies (Chambless et al., 1998) must be combined with effectiveness based on clinical significance in the real world (Seligman, 1995).”
Eckhardt, C. I., Murphy, C. M., Black, D. A., & Suhr, L. (2006) · Public Health Reports · doi:10.1177/003335490612100405 · Cited by 145 · see citing works
Stirman, S. W., DeRubeis, R. J., Crits-Christoph, P., & Brody, P. E. (2003) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.71.6.963 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
“This concern has been shared by others (Persons & Silberschatz, 1998; Seligman, 1995).”
BackgroundBorkovec, T. D., Echemendía, R. J., Ragusea, S. A., & Ruiz, M. A. (2001) · Clinical Psychology Science and Practice · doi:10.1093/clipsy.8.2.155 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
Strosahl, K. D., Hayes, S. C., Bergan, J., & Romano, P. (1998) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7894(98)80017-8 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
“It is useful to examine the correspondence between the parameters for clinical effectiveness research set forth by Seligman (1995) and the manipulated training method.”
BackgroundManual-based treatment and clinical practice.
Wilson, G. T. (1998) · Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2850.1998.tb00156.x · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Hohmann, L., Bradt, J., Stegemann, T., & Koelsch, S. (2017) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187363 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
The Treatment of Internet Gaming Disorder: a Brief Overview of the PIPATIC Program
Torres-Rodríguez, A., Griffiths, M. D., & Carbonell, X. (2017) · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · doi:10.1007/s11469-017-9825-0 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
“Following previous studies in order to ensure therapeutic change in patients, the duration of the program is six-months (22 weekly sessions each lasting 45 min) (Hansen and Lambert 2003; Kadera et al. 1996; Lambert et al. 1994; Seligman 1995).”
MethodNo hope without compassion: the importance of compassion in recovery-focused mental health services
Spandler, H., & Stickley, T. (2011) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.3109/09638237.2011.583949 · Cited by 136 · see citing works
“Yet, we know frompsychotherapy research that it is usually relationship factors rather than the specificmodel espoused, which appear to be the best predictorof positive outcome (Bolsover, 2007;Cooper, 2008;Horvath&Symonds, 1991; Seligman, 1995).”
BackgroundCognitively-oriented psychotherapy for early psychosis (COPE): Preliminary results
Jackson, H. J., McGorry, P. D., Edwards, J., Hulbert, C. A., Henry, L., Francey, S. M., Maude, D., Cocks, J., Power, P., Harrigan, S., et al. (1998) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/s0007125000297730 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Berkovits, M. D., O’Brien, K., Carter, C. G., & Eyberg, S. M. (2010) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2009.11.002 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
- Authors
- Seligman, M. E. P.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- Seligman, Martin E. P.
- Venue
- American Psychologist
- Published
- 1995-12
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 965-974
- ISSN
- 0003-066X (ISSN-L)
- 1935-990X
- OpenAlex
- W2121827944
- Cited by
- 1,608
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 59 · 2017: 35 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 46 · 2013: 57 · 2012: 75
- FWCI
- 75.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Psychologist (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH 19604)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- psychotherapy effectiveness, psychotherapy outcome, managed care, efficacy studies, randomized controlled trials, treatment comparison
- MeSH terms
- Consumer Behavior, Humans, Managed Care Programs, Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care, Psychotherapy, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Treatment Outcome
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