NEW YORK, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Psychotherapy visits have declined -- a decline that coincides with changes in reimbursement rates, managed care and medications, U.S. researchers said.
Various forms of psychotherapy, either alone or in combination with medications, are recommended for the treatment of major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric illnesses.
Dr. Ramin Mojtabai formerly of Beth Israel Medical Center and now of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Mark Olfson of the Columbia University Medical Center and New York state Psychiatric Institute analyzed trends in psychotherapy using data from national surveys of office-based psychiatrist visits from 1996 through 2005.
Over the 10-year period, psychotherapy was provided in 5,597, or 34 percent, of 14,108 visits lasting longer than 30 minutes. The percentage of visits involving psychotherapy declined from 44.4 percent in 1996 to 1997, or 28.9 percent, in 2004 to 2005.
"This decline coincided with changes in reimbursement, increases in managed care and growth in the prescription of medications," the study authors said in a statement.
The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, also found the number of psychiatrists who provided psychotherapy to all of their patients also declined over the same time period, from 19.1 percent to 10.8 percent.
