Assessing the clinical significance of treatment outcomes for distressing voices in routine clinical practice.

Assessing the clinical significance of treatment outcomes for distressing voices in routine clinical practice. Clin Psychol Psychother. 2019 Oct 28;: Authors: Badcock JC, Graham ME, Paulik G Abstract Determining reliable and clinically significant change is central to evidenced-based practice, yet rarely used in routine clinical settings. This paper illustrates these methods in the context of an evaluation of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for distressing auditory hallucinations ('voices'). We used data from a clinical sample attending Perth Voices Clinic, a transdiagnostic outpatient service for distressing voices, and a previously published reference sample of healthy voice hearers. Our outcomes on the primary measure of voice distress, derived from Woodward et al.' s (2014) factor analysis of the PSYRATS-Auditory Hallucinations subscale, showed that 62.9% of clients were classified as Recovered/Improved, 35.5% were classified as Unchanged, and 0.02% were classified as Deteriorated. Partial support for the validity of these classifications was obtained from scores on the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), but not on the Social and Occupational Functional Assessment Scale (SOFAS; Goldman et al., 1992). Clients classified as Recovered showed better emotional functioning on the DASS compared to those who did not make a clinically significant change in voice distress. A tool is provided to assist pra...
Source: Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Clin Psychol Psychother Source Type: research