Early sudden gains in psychotherapy under routine clinic conditions: Practice-based evidence.

• DOI: 10.1037/0022-006x.71.1.14
• Publication Date: 2005-10-11T21:06:41Z
• Authors: William B. Stiles; Chris Leach; Michael Barkham; Mike Lucock; Steve Iveson; David A. Shapiro; Michaela Iveson; Gillian E. Hardy
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Time Factors; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Psychometrics; Depression; 05 social sciences; Treatment Outcome; Ambulatory Care; Humans; Female; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Practice Patterns, Physicians'

Sudden gains--large, enduring reductions in symptom intensity from one session to the next--were identified by T. Z. Tang and R. J. DeRubeis (1999b) on the basis of data from 2 manualized clinical trials of cognitive therapy for depression. The authors found similar sudden gains among clients with a variety of disorders treated with a variety of approaches in routine clinic settings. Clients (N = 135 who met inclusion criteria) completed short forms of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-SF) preceding 7 to 74 individual sessions. Those who experienced sudden gains within their first 16 sessions (n = 23) had significantly lower CORE-SF scores in their final 3 sessions than did the other clients.