Spontaneous remission and psychological therapy research

Eysenck (1952) suggested that two thirds of neurotics entering psychotherapy improve within two years but that this is also true of neurotics who do not enter therapy. These improvements were said to be due to spontaneous remission, presumably due to natural homeostatic processes, either physical or psychological.

He based his conclusions on the results of 8053 cases from 24 outcome studies.

Subsequent review of his analysis and subsequent research reduced the estimate of spontanoeus remission rates for neurotic disorders to between 33-45%

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