Does Behavior Therapy Still Work When the Experimenters Depart?

The power of behavior therapy to change maladaptive behavior in the short run is well documented. Although successful medical treatments soon become incorporated into service programs, similar transitions are not so evident in the behavioral literature. A successful behavioral treatment program for adult stutterers is described. This program had been developed from a series of empirical investigations. However, for the last five years it has been operating as a service program. It therefore presented a unique opportunity to document the transition to the service phase of a behavior therapy program. Outcome results in the empirical phase were comparable in the short run and superior in the long run to those derived from the experimental phase. Implications for clinical research in the behavioral therapies are discussed.