Matching Patients to Therapists ’ Strengths Found to Improve Mental Health Outcomes

Patients who were matched to therapists with proven effectiveness in addressing the patients ’ top areas of concern experienced greater improvements following treatment than those paired with therapists randomly, according to astudy published today inJAMA Psychiatry.“Mental illness is a major public health problem, and even among people who engage mental health care, more than 60% do not benefit meaningfully from care received,” wrote Michael Constantino, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and colleagues. “These results suggest that measu rement-based therapist report cards can help redirect [mental health care] toward therapists’ strengths.”Constantino and colleagues conducted a trial across six clinics in Cleveland, Ohio, that included 48 therapists and 218 patients. To be included, the therapists had to provide outcome data from at least 15 cases, which were used to establish their performance profiles. Using 12 symptomatic or functional domains determined by the Treatment Outcome Package (TOP), the therapists were classified as effective (on average, their patients ’ symptoms reliably improved), neutral (on average, their patients’ symptoms neither improved nor deteriorated), or ineffective (on average, their patients’ symptoms reliably deteriorated) within each of the domains. The TOP measures how much a patient has experienced 12 specific concerns in t he past two weeks, including depression, quality of life, social conflict, substance...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: impairment JAMA Psychiatry mental health outcomes patients psychological distress Symptom Checklist-10 therapists Treatment Outcome Package Source Type: research