The effects of psychological therapies under clinically representative conditions: A meta-analysis

Author(s): Matt, G. E., Navarro, A. M., Phillips, G.

Journal/Book: Psychol Bull. 2000; 126: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242, USA. Amer Psychological Assoc. 512-529.

Abstract: Recently, concern has arisen that meta-analyses overestimate the effects of psychological therapies and that those therapies may not work under clinically representative conditions. This mete-analysis of 90 studies found that therapies are effective over a range of clinical representativeness. The projected effects of an ideal study of clinically representative therapy are similar to effect sizes in past meta-analyses. Effects increase with larger dose and when outcome measures are specific to treatment. Some clinically representative studies used self-selected treatment clients who were more distressed than available controls, and these quasi-experiments underestimated therapy effects. This study illustrates the joint use of fixed and random effects models, use of pretest effect sizes to study selection bias in quasi-experiments, and use of regression analysis to project results to an ideal study in the spirit of response surface modeling.

Note: Review Shadish WR, Univ Memphis, Dept Psychol, Campus Box 526400, Memphis,TN 38152 USA

Keyword(s): RATIONAL-EMOTIVE THERAPY; MENTAL-HEALTH-CENTER; BRIEF PSYCHOTHERAPY; SYSTEMATIC-DESENSITIZATION; PHARMACOLOGICAL TREATMENTS; ADOLESCENT PSYCHOTHERAPY; RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENTS; BEHAVIOR-THERAPY; CANCER-PATIENTS; NATIONAL SURVEY

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