title: Duration of psychological therapy: relation to recovery and improvement rates in UK routine practice. [corrected].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies have reported similar recovery and improvement rates regardless of treatment duration among patients receiving National Health Service (NHS) primary care mental health psychological therapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether this pattern would replicate and extend to other service sectors, including secondary care, university counselling, voluntary sector and workplace counselling.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared treatment duration with degree of improvement measured by the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) for 26 430 adult patients who scored above the clinical cut-off point at the start of treatment, attended 40 or fewer sessions and had planned endings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean CORE-OM scores improved substantially (pre-post effect size 1.89); 60% of patients achieved reliable and clinically significant improvement (RCSI). Rates of RCSI and reliable improvement and mean pre- and post-treatment changes were similar at all tested treatment durations. Patients seen in different service sectors showed modest variations around this pattern.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results were consistent with the responsive regulation model, which suggests that in routine care participants tend to end therapy when gains reach a good-enough level.
authors.affiliation: William B. Stiles, PhD, Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA; Michael Barkham, PhD, Centre for Psychological Services Research, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK; Sue Wheeler, PhD, Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester, UK stileswb@miamioh.edu.
authors.forename: William B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Stiles
authors.affiliation: William B. Stiles, PhD, Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA; Michael Barkham, PhD, Centre for Psychological Services Research, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK; Sue Wheeler, PhD, Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barkham
authors.affiliation: William B. Stiles, PhD, Department of Psychology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and Department of Psychology, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA; Michael Barkham, PhD, Centre for Psychological Services Research, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, UK; Sue Wheeler, PhD, Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wheeler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D063868:Patient Outcome Assessment; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D057566:Self Report; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult