Relationships between early and final reports of treatment outcome in long-term group psychotherapy

Leadership behavior, group climate and outcome in group psychotherapy: A study of outpatient psychotherapy groups

“…These ideas already exist in the group literature, but could be extended, expanded, and further applied to the study of group leaders, members, and group process. We are also particularly excited by the work of Piper et al (1979Piper et al ( , 1984Piper et al ( , 1986 which found that long-term group therapy and short-term individual therapy were superior when compared to long-term individual therapy and short-term group therapy. Such work foreshadows the establishment of more complex theories for group work which may involve crossing of key concepts such as group climate with important structural dimensions such as duration of treatment crossed with form of treatment.…”

“…This finding was supported with a battery of outcome measures, pre-post testing and 6-month follow-up, which interestingly revealed that these patients perceived the group experience to be more potent 6 months after the group experience ended. Piper et al (1986), in their investigation of early versus final reports of treatment outcome in long-term, closed, time-limited (2 years) therapy groups led by experienced therapists, found a strong relationship between early (6 months) and final (24 months) reports of outcome, and suggest that early posttreatment reports have ~considerable predictive power." While the results of these studies show diversity, their increasing complexity and the multiple dimensions which characterize them are of note.…”

Predicting early attrition from psychotherapy: An analysis of a large private-practice cohort.

“…A final issue links early attrition to early experience in therapy. Several recent studies have found that the patient’s experience during the first part of therapy may provide some prediction of outcome (Piper et al, 1986). In the current study, both noncompliance and dissatisfaction were related to premature termination.…”