Brief vs. Long term psychotherapy: A treatment decision

The subject of brief psychotherapy has often been mentioned but rarely investigated. How the practicing clinician decides for brief vs. long term psychotherapy is relatively unknown. This study has examined this treatment decision in 99 cases evaluated in a community mental health center. The treatment decision was found to be unaffected by the sociodemographic variables of the patients, but significantly affected by certain clinical, patient-clinician interactional and institutional variables. Results did not support the concept of brief psychotherapy as supportive and long term psychotherapy as explorative, but rather suggested a focal-nonfocal (multifocal) model as accounting for differences between brief and long term psychotherapy. Implications for an institutional referral process are discussed.