With the rise in efforts to evaluate the quality of mental health care and its outcomes, the measurement of change has become an important topic. This paper tracks the creation of a new instrument designed to assess psychotherapy outcome. The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) was designed to include items relevant to three domains central to mental health: subjective discomfort, interpersonal relations, and social role performance. This study describes the theoretical development and psychometric properties of the OQ. Psychometric properties were assessed using clinical, community, and undergraduate samples. The OQ appears to have high reliability and evidence to suggest good concurrent and construct validity of the total score. The data presented show that it distinguishes patient from non‐patient samples, is sensitive to change, and correlates with other measures of patient distress.

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The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ) was developed by Lambert and colleagues (1994) as a standardized measure for assessing psychotherapy outcome. Although the instrument is already being widely used in managed health care quality control, further evidence of its psychometric properties is needed. This research evaluated the concurrent and construct validity of the OQ with three patient samples and a sample of community participants. Support was found for the construct and concurrent validity of the OQ with both patients (n = 183) and nonpatients (n = 210). The data show significant differences in scores between patients and community samples, as well as differences between the various clinical samples with varying levels of pathology. Although high correlations between the OQ Total (and subscale) scores and the criterion measures were found, high intercorrelations among subscales suggest considerable shared variance between subscales. The OQ Total score appears promising as a measure of general psychological distress, although further research is needed to justify the interpretation of subscale scores in clinical settings.

This study presents a treatment efficacy and medical utilization evaluation of a cognitive-behavioral, outpatient, chronic pain management program in a military hospital setting. A total of 61 nonmalignant chronic pain patients with heterogeneous pain syndromes who participated in sequential group programs were included in the study. Comprehensive and multi-dimensional outcome criteria were used, including pain ratings, relaxation skills, quality of life, satisfaction ratings, and medical utilization. The findings demonstrated improvements on all general indices. Military status had no effect on any of the outcome measures. Most significant was an 87% reduction in outpatient clinic visits in the first 3 months after treatment. This reduction amounts to a projected net annual saving of $78,960 in the first year after behavioral medicine intervention. In light of the increasing cost of health care for chronic pain patients, psychological approaches as an adjunct to traditional medical care seem to present a sound solution for cost savings. This study also supports the notion that a strategic biopsychosocial pain program, which targets the multiple dimensions of persistent pain, provides effective treatment and increases patient satisfaction.