The 16-minute Hour: Combining Abbreviated Psychotherapy With Medication Visits. Part 1: Introduction

Abstract

Psychiatrists increasingly practice psychotherapy by integrating their therapeutic training into brief medication visits. Insurance companies reimburse this approach using the 90833 Current Procedural Terminology code, which corresponds to 16-37 minutes of add-on psychotherapy combined with pharmacotherapy. As scholarship focused on such short-form combined therapy is scarce, this 4-part series addresses this practice gap, providing guidance to practicing professionals. This introductory installment reviews recent evolutions in psychotherapy training, the existing literature on abbreviating psychotherapy techniques, and some general guidelines and principles for adapting psychotherapy to shortened visits and selecting a specific therapeutic modality.