A national research audit has shown that 49 per cent of clients using psychological therapies recovered by the end of treatment.

The National Audit of Psychological Therapies for Anxiety and Depression collected data from 357 therapy services in 120 organisations and from nearly 4000 therapists and 11000 clients. One third of the services were IAPT-funded; 87 per cent were managed within the NHS and nine per cent were voluntary sector.

The survey, conducted by the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, found that 49 per cent of clients in the audit were recorded as having recovered by the end of treatment. However outcomes were not recorded for all clients, the researchers point out.

All the therapists surveyed had received training, but not all had completed formal training in all the interventions they were providing. Nearly three quarters (70 per cent) of clients did not receive the minimum number of sessions recommended by NICE, and half of these had not recovered when the therapy was discontinued. Most clients (85 per cent) saw a therapist within the promised waiting time, but one in seven people waited more than three months for a first appointment.

Older people were much less likely to be offered psychological therapy and more than a third of services had a policy specifically excluding older people.

Most (90 per cent) clients reported a good therapeutic relationship with their therapist, but the audit did not include people who had dropped out of therapy. Waiting times and too few sessions were the most common client complaints.

The CCQI has received further funding from the Healthcare Quality Improvement Agency to run the audit again this year. But it says services need to radically improve the recording of patient outcome, ethnicity and diagnosis data to provide a more accurate picture of psychological therapies and their benefits for clients.