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The Essential Psychotherapies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gavin Andrews*
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety Disorders, University of New South Wales at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia
*
Anxiety Disorders Unit, 299 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia

Abstract

Psychiatry is becoming increasingly confident about defining the benefits to be expected from each treatment (World Health Organization, 1991). The World Health Organization has published a list of essential drug treatments, but neither it nor any national regulatory body has ever examined non-drug treatments. This article examines the utility of the psychotherapies as treatments for persons with psychiatric disorders, and within a health service, whether supported by private insurance or by public taxation. It is not about the utility of psychotherapy paid for by an individual, for what people do with their own money is their own business. However, when deciding how to apportion a limited health budget, one should choose treatments that are more effective, safer, and cheaper than competing alternatives. Precisely how effectiveness, safety, and cost efficiency should be traded off against each other is a moot point, but there is agreement that treatments that are ineffective, harmful, and costly should not be used.

Type
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Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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