Psychotherapy with children: A further evaluation

There does not seem to be a sound basis for the contention that psychotherapy facilitates recovery from emotional illness in children, and the data suggest that the improvement rate varies among psychiatric illnesses, and that future comparisons of treated and defector groups should be made within diagnostic categories.

Abstract

Evidence concerning the appropriateness of defector control groups is conflicting, but it is still probable that such a group yields a suitable baseline for the evaluation of psychotherapy. Twenty-two studies of outcome provided an overall improvement rate of 65.2 per cent which is similar to the rate which was found in studies reviewed earlier, and also to the rate of improvement among defectors. It must still be concluded that there does not seem to be a sound basis for the contention that psychotherapy facilitates recovery from emotional illness in children. The data suggest that the improvement rate varies among psychiatric illnesses, and that future comparisons of treated and defector groups should be made within diagnostic categories.