An individual differences perspective on change in psychotherapy: The case of health care utilization

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore systematic interindividual variation in change of a number of health care utilization variables (HCUVs) during psychotherapy and identify patient characteristics associated with this variation. Three-wave panel data from 420 patients were analyzed with nonparametric latent class regression followed by chi-square interaction analyses among patient variables. For the various HCUVs, three to six classes were identified, with widely different patterns of change during treatment. Axis I diagnosis, chronicity, functional impairment, gender, and level of education were among the patient characteristics that differentiated the classes. It was concluded that main effects analyses seriously distort heterogeneity of change and that health care utilization, unless it is a specific therapeutic aim, may be irrelevant as an indication of outcome of psychotherapy.