[Success of psychosomatic rehabilitation as a function of treatment length].

Clinical practice, effect studies, the time structure of psychotherapeutic processes and treatment outcome data show that the legally provided treatment time of no more than 3 weeks for inpatient medical rehabilitation is usually not sufficient to achieve satisfactory and long-term stable psychotherapeutic improvement. In an evaluation study in a psychosomatic rehabilitation clinic the change in symptoms of 266 inpatients was recorded using the German version of the CES-D scale (ADS-L) and the Symptom Check List SCL90R. Values obtained after 21 days of treatment were compared with data obtained on discharge after an average of 45 days. Multiple patient characteristics, therapy parameters and process aspects were studied empirically in order to select patient groups which show sufficient effects after a 3 weeks treatment. Irrespective of patient characteristics, therapeutic experience, clinically significant and long-term stable effects were only achieved after treatment periods exceeding 3 weeks.