Effectiveness of short-term individual psychotherapy provided outside the healthcare system in the Czech Republic
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Aim: As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, several Czech health insurance companies started partially covering the costs of short-term psychotherapy provided by private practitioners working outside the healthcare system. However, no empirical evidence supporting this decision was available in the Czech context. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of short-term individual psychotherapy in private practice and investigate potential predictors of change. Method: N = 2059 clients (78% female) completed depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and somatization (PHQ-15) measures at the beginning and end of therapy (no later than session 10). The treatments were conducted by 228 therapists of diverse theoretical orientations, with humanistic/experiential and systemic/post-modern orientations prevailing in the sample. The effectiveness of psychotherapy and its predictors were estimated using a series of multilevel models in which the therapist effect and other intervening variables were controlled for. Results: The effect size was d = -0.57 for depression, d = -0.62 for anxiety, and d = -0.40 for somatization. Effects were higher in clients in the clinical range. Except for the baseline outcome severity, no substantial predictors were found on the clients’ and therapists’ side. Discussion: The effects were comparable to those from culturally and geographically similar studies. Furthermore, they were unrelated to treatment length and clinicians’ experience and theoretical orientation, and only marginally related to clinicians’ primary profession. The absence of a control group made it impossible to distinguish the effect of the therapeutic intervention from spontaneous change. |
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