The impact of a brief psychological intervention on medical care utilization in an Army health care setting.

A medically referred treatment group (N = 17) exposed to a brief directive psychological intervention and a comparison group (N = 17) matched on age, sex, marital status, general medical symptomatology and initial frequency of outpatient visits over a 6-month period were compared as to the frequency of their outpatient visits in the 6-months following the presence or absence of the intervention in a small overseas military health care setting. Adequate controls of out-of-plan utilization as well as for the effect of a medical referred visit were achieved. Results indicated that a significant reduction in medical utilization occurred only for the treatment group. This effect was not replaced with the mere number of psychological treatment sessions. Discussion of the treatment effect centered around the relative symptom specificity of the groups and the possibly limited treatment alternatives available. Results seemed to warrant further investigations in uniformed services health care facilities.