title: Severity of psychiatric symptoms as a predictor of benefits from psychotherapy: the Veterans Administration-Penn study.
abstract: One hundred ten nonpsychotic opiate addicts were randomly assigned to receive paraprofessional drug counseling alone, counseling plus cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, or counseling plus supportive-expressive psychotherapy. Patients were classified low-severity, mid-severity, or high-severity on the basis of the number and severity of their psychiatric symptoms. Overall, the addition of professional psychotherapy was associated with greater benefits than was drug counseling alone. Low-severity patients made considerable and approximately equal progress with added psychotherapy or with counseling alone. Mid-severity patients had better outcomes with additional psychotherapy than with counseling alone, but counseling did effect numerous significant improvements. High-severity patients made little progress with counseling alone, but with added psychotherapy made considerable progress and used both prescribed and illicit drugs less often.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003376:Counseling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D008691:Methadone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D009293:Opioid-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011336:Probability; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011613:Psychotherapy
chemical_list: D008691:Methadone