ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the questions: Does psychotherapy work? and: Is psychotherapy cost-effective? Currently, evidence for the effectiveness of psychotherapy is overwhelming. Major meta-analyses of hundreds of treatment trials involving thousands of child, adolescent, and adult clients with a wide range of problems show unequivocally that psychotherapy works. There is also a large body of evidence which shows that patients who receive psychotherapy use less other medical services, and that this leads to significant overall cost offset. In this chapter some of this evidence will be reviewed.
