Benchmarking Community‐Based Couple Therapy: Considering Measurement Reactivity

• Published in: Family process 2020-12, Vol.59 (4), p.1423-1433
• Main Authors: Quirk, Kelley, Owen, Jesse, Reese, Robert J., Babins‐Wagner, Robbie, Berzins, Sandy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Benchmark tests; Benchmarking; Clinical research; Clinical trials; Clinics; Community health services; Couple Therapy; Couples therapy; Efficacy; Measurement; Psychotherapy; Reactivity; Therapy Outcomes; Treatment methods
• ISSN: 0014-7370; 1545-5300
• DOI: 10.1111/famp.12513

Couple therapy has been shown to be effective in randomized clinical trials; however, results from naturalistic couple therapy have been less consistent. This study utilized a benchmarking approach to compare the effectiveness of couple therapy in a community‐based setting with findings from efficacy treatments, such as treatment within randomized clinical trials. The current study is the largest couple therapy sample published to date (N = 3,347 couples). Clients in couple therapy were asked to provide initial and weekly ratings of symptomology on the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ‐45.2). We found that treatment effect sizes found at community clinics were smaller than efficacy studies (i.e., the benchmark). However, when taking into account measurement reactivity, the effect sizes were comparable. This is the first benchmarking study for community‐based couple therapy, allowing for meaningful comparisons and understanding of outcomes in real‐world couple therapy. Implications for the field are offered in terms of evaluating community‐based psychotherapy studies with benchmarking for couple therapy. Results of this study provide clinicians and researchers a way to meaningfully compare couple therapy outcomes, accounting for differences in community‐based practices and randomized clinical trials. This benchmark also underscores the impact of measurement sensitivity, an issue commonly overlooked in psychotherapy research and practice. Se ha demostrado que la terapia de pareja es eficaz en los ensayos clínicos aleatorizados, sin embargo, los resultados de la terapia de pareja naturalista han sido menos consecuentes. Este estudio utilizó un enfoque comparativo para comparar la eficacia de la terapia de pareja en un entorno basado en la comunidad con hallazgos de los tratamientos de eficacia, como los tratamientos dentro de los ensayos clínicos aleatorizados El presente estudio es la muestra más grande de terapia de pareja publicado hasta la fecha (N = 3347 parejas). Se pidió a los pacientes en terapia de pareja que proporcionen calificaciones iniciales y semanales de la sintomatología en el cuestionario para evaluación de resultados (OQ‐45.2).Descubrimos que los tamaños del efecto de los tratamientos hallados en las clínicas comunitarias fueron más pequeños que los de los estudios de eficacia (p. ej.: el estudio comparativo). Sin embargo, cuando se tomó en cuenta la reactividad a la medición, los tamaños del efecto fueron comparables. Este es el primer estudio com