Some psychological treatments like CBT and psychoeducational family work are researched well, other far less. This is sometimes inherent to the character of the treatment. Short structured therapies which can be protocolized can be researched easier than long therapies which methods can vary. And psychological therapies are not a form of drug, clients have a very active role. Is the therapy successful than they may use it at certain points in their life, while in other periods in their life the knowledge drawn from the therapy is sleeping. Sometimes culture of the therapy make research difficult, some therapists may feel data research methods suppress creativity.
Why is it important however to research the outcome of a therapy? Well of course there is a practical benefit. Insurance companies will be less and less ready to finance therapies of which there is no proof that they work. But also for the therapy itself it is very important to organize feedback, to prevent delusions of the therapists. Psychotic people were in history too often victim of great and important therapies which sometimes made problems even worse.
So it is a challenge for ISPS to find good research methods.
On this page you will some links. When you have recommendations please mail the editor
What is outcome research?
Outome research in CBT
In CBT there is a strong research culture. That is because CBT ers just want to look what works. What works is good. They don't pretend to know the whole truth, but have somtimes an idea, like, a lot of people become psychotic after a period of bad sleep, so let us look what happens when we teach sleeping habits. That has the consequence that research methods must be very good. A leading CBT psychologist recommended this website:
The main product of CONSORT is the CONSORT Statement, which is an evidence-based, minimum set of recommendations for reporting randomized trials. It offers a standard way for authors to prepare reports of trial findings, facilitating their complete and transparent reporting, and aiding their critical appraisal and interpretation.
The CONSORT Statement comprises a 25-item checklist and a flow diagram. The checklist items focus on reporting how the trial was designed, analyzed, and interpreted; the flow diagram displays the progress of all participants through the trial. The CONSORT “Explanation and Elaboration” document explains and illustrates the principles underlying the CONSORT Statement. We strongly recommend that it is used in conjunction with the CONSORT Statement. In addition, extensions of the CONSORT Statement have been developed to give additional guidance for RCTs with specific designs, data and intervention
To do good research is sometimes very difficult. For instance when you change treatment in an institution then there happens more than just the change of treatment, but there is also a change in culture and maybe a change in treatment organisation. The qualitative research can be a good alternative. It can give knowledge when the research subject is embedded in a context and gives more insight about processes.
What gives most information is a combination of qualitative and quantitave research
Grounded theory A term that the editor heard many times on a CBT conference
