Does psychotherapy for young adults in routine practice show similar results as therapy in randomized clinical trials?

Previous research indicates that patients treated with psychotherapy in the community do not stay in treatment long enough to achieve clinically significant change. Because the average patient seeking treatment at a community center may not be as informed and motivated for change as the average patient participating in a research trial, the authors compared outcome among all patients presenting to a mental health clinic (n=416) and a subgroup of patients who started psychotherapy at the same clinic (n=101). Outcome was assessing using the Symptom Checklist-90, Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, and Global Assessment of Functioning. Results confirmed that outcome among all patients seeking the centre was worse than in an average clinical trial. However, patients who started psychotherapy after assessment achieved results comparable to those in RCT studies.