"Between-group psychotherapy outcome research and basic science" revisited

• Published in: Journal of clinical psychology 1999-02, Vol.55 (2), p.159-169
• Main Authors: Krause, Merton S., Howard, Kenneth I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Humans; Medical research; Mental Disorders - therapy; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Psychology; Psychotherapy, Group - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Research Design; Therapy
• ISSN: 0021-9762; 1097-4679
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(199902)55:2<159::AID-JCLP3>3.0.CO;2-N

Case studies involving the measurement of every plausibly causal variable and every important outcome variable and covering the widest possible range of cases in terms of these variables are the highest priority for psychotherapy research. Such case studies looked at together will give us the best initial understanding of what variables are probably causal and what treatments yield the best results for particular kinds of patients, therapists, and settings. The accumulation of such case studies will show us where we would benefit by doing comparative controlled experiments of distinct therapies or by employing optimum‐seeking designs for a particular therapy. Collaboration by the practitioner community will be needed to do this. The truly difficult and necessary work of applied psychotherapy research still lies ahead of us, hardly touched. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 55: 159–169, 1999.