Psychotherapy and the National Health Service: an Operational Study

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Abstract
The importance of psychotherapy, as one of the commonest and most distinctive methods of treatment used by psychiatrists, is hardly disputed, although the definition, theoretical basis and effectiveness of its various forms are subject to much debate. In the present article we are concerned with psychotherapy only as a form of service available to N.H.S. patients. Our aims are: (1) to calculate the numbers of patients, living in an area with relatively good services, who are receiving two operationally-defined types of psychotherapy, (2) to estimate the numbers of local patients already attending out-patient clinics who might be referred to a specialized psychotherapy department if certain rules of selection were applied, and (3)to discuss the relevance, if any, of these data for planning local psychotherapy services. The limitations of the material will be obvious and the calculations crude, but they should be adequate to open the subject to realistic discussion.

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