Evaluating the Cost Effectiveness of ISTDP: A Quasi Experimental Study (CEISTDP)

Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Psychotic Disorders; Somatoform Disorders; Depression; Anxiety; Personality Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: ISTDP

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01924715

AA003

Details and patient eligibility

About

Objective: To evaluate whether or not cases treated with Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) facilitate healthcare cost reduction, whether any observed reduction is greater than that of a control group and whether any such gains would be maintained in follow up.

Design: A quasi-experimental design was employed in which pre and post healthcare cost and usage data were extracted for all ISTDP treated cases from 1999 to 2008 and compared to parallel measures of a control group of cases referred but never treated.

Full description

Importance: Psychiatric and psychological disorders result in excess health care service use and costs. Brief psychotherapy methods may be effective across a broad range of mental disorders and could therefore result in healthcare cost reduction.

Objective: To evaluate whether or not cases treated with Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) facilitate healthcare cost reduction, whether any observed reduction is greater than that of a control group and whether any such gains would be maintained in follow up.

Design: A quasi-experimental design was employed in which pre and post healthcare cost and usage data were extracted for all ISTDP treated cases from 1999 to 2008 and compared to parallel measures of a control group of cases referred but never treated.

Setting: Treatments were provided at an urban University based psychotherapy service.

Participants: All cases from the province of Nova Scotia treated within the research time frame were included. 890 patients were included with a very broad range of psychiatric disorders including anxiety, mood, somatoform, personality and psychotic disorders. 192 referred but never see cases served as non randomized controls.

Intervention(s): ISTDP is an emotionally focused form of brief psychotherapy which has supportive, cognitive, experiential and primarily psychodynamic elements. In this setting the average length of treatment was 7.3 sessions and cost an estimated $500 dollars per treatment course.

Enrollment: 1,082 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 12 to 90 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• All patients referred for ISTDP treatment

Exclusion criteria

• Patients not referred for ISTDP treatment

Trial design

1,082 participants in 2 patient groups

ISTDP

Description:

Patients provided Intensive Short term Dynamic Psychotherapy

Treatment:

Behavioral: ISTDP

Control Group

Description:

Patients referred for ISTDP but never seen for any reason