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The benefits of psychotherapy have been well documented; however, 5-10% of clients worsen while in treatment and another minority shows no response. The effects of feedback timing (delayed or immediate) and type (progress feedback and Clinical Support Tool [CST] feedback), aimed at reducing deterioration and improving outcomes, were examined in a sample of 1101 clients whose outcome was contrasted across experimental groups and with two archival groups: a delayed progress feedback and CST feedback group (n = 1374) and a treatment-as-usual control group (n = 1445). Progress feedback to therapists improved outcomes, especially for cases at risk for a negative outcome, but direct progress feedback to clients did not. Effects were significantly enhanced by using the manual-based CST. There were no significant differences in outcome between the 1-week-delayed CST feedback and 2-week-delayed CST feedback groups; however, clients in the week-delayed CST feedback timing condition attended three less sessions, on average, than their 2-week-delayed CST feedback counterparts while maintaining similar treatment gains. Results were interpreted as supporting the value of monitoring client progress and feeding back this information to therapists as well as assisting therapists in problem solving with cases at risk for treatment failure.

Empirical methods have been found to be superior to clinical judgment for the purpose of correctly identifying patients at risk for treatment failure and, hence, to enhance psychotherapy outcomes. The development and evaluation of an empirical approach aimed at supporting clinical decisions during the course of psychotherapy is described. The tool provides predictions based on a patient-specific sampling strategy called the nearest neighbors method and on growth curve approaches to model an expected treatment course for each patient. Using session-by-session data from an outpatient center in the US (N = 4365), this new empirically derived decision model was evaluated and compared with a clinically based approach loosely based on an adaptation of clinically significant change concepts. The empirically derived decision system was found to be superior to the rational clinically based one in almost all measures of prediction accuracy, indicating its potential to identify patients at risk for treatment failure.

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Family medicine providers at a large family medicine clinic were surveyed regarding their impression of the impact, utility and safety of the Primary Care Prescribing Psychologist (PCPP) model in which a prescribing psychologist is embedded in a primary care clinic. This article describes the model and provides indications of its strengths and weaknesses as reported by medical providers who have utilized the model for the past 2 years. A brief history of prescribing psychology and the challenges surrounding granting psychologists the authority to prescribe psychotropic medication is summarized. Results indicate family medicine providers agree that having a prescribing psychologist embedded in the family medicine clinic is helpful to their practice, safe for patients, convenient for providers and for patients, and improves patient care. Potential benefits of integrating prescribing psychology into primary care are considered and directions for future research are discussed.

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In order to better understand the effects of initial level of psychological disturbance on treatment outcome, a retrospective case control study of 95 couples who received couple therapy was conducted by sorting couples into one of four groups based on the degree of distress reported by individuals at intake: Neither distressed; both distressed; male distressed, female not distressed; female distressed, male not distressed. When partners started treatment with similar levels of disturbance both responded well in couple therapy. However, if the female reported clinical levels of disturbance at intake but her partner did not, outcome for the female was especially poor in contrast to outcomes for females receiving individual therapy. Clinically disturbed males showed significant gains in treatment even when their partners were not disturbed. These suggestive results argue for the possible value of conducting controlled studies of treatment assignment decisions that maximize positive outcomes.Keywords Couple versus individual therapy outcome AE Contraindications for couple therapy AE Negative treatment effects in couple therapy Sexton, Alexander, and Mease (2004) in their large scale review of the effects of couple therapy on psychological disorders note that much more research is needed in this area as most published research on couple therapy has examined marital adjustment rather than changes in psychological disorders. Despite the need for more research on the effects of couple therapy on psychological disorders, studies comparing individual versus couple therapy routinely fail to find superior outcomes for either treatment (e.g., Emanuels-