Goal‐Directed Treatment of Patients With Anxiety and Mood Disorders in a Regular Curative Mental Health Care Setting

This study examined whether goal-directed treatment leads to improved treatment outcomes for patients with a primary mood or anxiety disorder and whether beneficial outcomes are achieved sooner compared to treatment as usual. In a quasi-experimental controlled study with a nested design, 17 therapists received training in goal-directed treatment and treated 105 patients with anxiety or mood disorders using principles of goal-directed treatment. Treatment results on a generic self-report instrument were compared with two control groups: a historical control group consisting of 16 of the 17 participating therapists, who provided treatment as usual to 97 patients before having received training in goal-directed treatment, and a parallel control group consisting of various therapists, who provided treatment as usual to 105 patients. Symptom reduction on a self-report measure was compared using multilevel analysis. A survival analysis was performed to assess whether a satisfactory end state had been reached sooner after goal-directed treatment. The results of this study show that goal-directed treatment only led to a significantly better overall treatment outcome compared to the parallel treatment as usual group. Furthermore, goal-directed treatment was significantly shorter than both treatment as usual groups. In conclusion, this research suggest that goal-directed treatment led to a similar or better treatment outcome in a shorter amount of time.