Tiemens B, et al. - Researchers conducted this naturalistic study in order to explore how the initial frequency of treatment sessions affects treatment outcome in a diverse mental health care population. They analyzed data of 2,634 patients who were allocated to outpatient treatment programs in a large general mental health care facility for anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and personality disorders. The Outcome Questionnaire-45 was administered every 12 weeks for routinely assessing patients’ treatment outcome. They assessed the frequency of sessions for the first three months of treatment. Symptom severity and functional impairment at the start of treatment, the year the treatment started, number of measurements, the treatment program (anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and personality disorders) and receiving group therapy other than psychotherapy were observed influencing improvement and recovery among patients. In addition, there may be a less favorable outcome and a more chronic course of the mental disorder in correlation to a low frequency of initial treatment sessions. Not restricting to a specific diagnostic group, the presence of this association was observed in a large group of patients with common mental disorders (depression and anxiety disorders) and patients with a personality disorder. Despite organizational obstacles, more effort should be made to start treatment quickly by an effective frequency of session.