The Cost-Effectiveness of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

Abstract

CME Educational Objectives 1. Expose the reader to various sources of health care costs and diagnoses responsible for these. 2. Review the evidence for multiple categories of cost reduction for intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy (ISTDP). 3. Review the return-to-work rates for patients receiving ISTDP treatment. The health care burden of chronic disability, with mental illness and somatic symptom disorders leading the way, is crippling to global economies. 1 In the recent JAMA report by the U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators, the top diseases with the largest number of years lived with disability in 2010 were low back pain, major depressive disorder, other musculoskeletal disorders, neck pain, and anxiety disorders. Migraine, drug use, alcohol use and dysthymia were also in the top 20. The authors noted that half of the health system cost is due to disability and morbidity. 1