Outpatient Psychotherapy Reduces Health-Care Costs: A Study of 22,294 Insurants over 5 Years.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The project "Quality Assurance in Ambulatory Psychotherapy in Bavaria" (QS-PSY-BAY) focuses on the quality assurance of outpatient psychotherapy (OPT) in Germany in terms of symptom reduction and cost reduction under naturalistic conditions. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of psychotherapy in terms of pre-post cost reduction.

Method

The health-care costs of N = 22,294 insurants over a 5-year period were examined in a naturalistic longitudinal design. Six participating health insurance funds provided data on costs related to inpatient treatment, outpatient treatment, drugs, and hospitalization and work disability days.

Results

We found that the average annual total costs for inpatient and outpatient treatments as well as drug costs and work disa

SUBMITTER: Altmann U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4904013 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature