Assessing Psychotherapy Outcome With Feedback

Summary

This study is a comparison of client outcomes in two different types of psychotherapy treatment. In one condition clients will receive treatment-as-usual (TAU); the therapy that they would normally receive. In the other condition clients will receive treatment-as-usual but in addition their therapist will have access to empirical feedback on client progress. Clients in the feedback condition will fill out weekly online questionnaires, and their therapists will have access to a website that feeds back the results of these questionnaires. The purpose of the study is to understand the impact of providing such feedback to therapists. Participating therapists at 4 sites will offer all of their clients the opportunity to participate, and participating clients will be randomly assigned to either condition. This should result in a representative sample of client seeking treatment at these 4 Chicago-area clinics.

Conditions

• Individual Psychiatric Disorder
• Couple Dysfunction
• Family Dysfunction

Interventions

OTHER

Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC)

The STIC is a computerized measurement and feedback system for use in psychotherapy. The measurement system consists of weekly questionnaires, completed on the computer, that target symptoms and functioning in a variety of domains of a clients life (e.g., individual symptoms, couple functioning, family functioning, relationship with children). The feedback system consists of a web-portal where therapists may access their clients' STIC responses, for the purposes of planning treatment, assessing progress, and discussing change with clients.

OTHER

Treatment as Usual

Clients receive psychotherapy treatment as planned and implemented by their psychotherapists. Exact type of treatment varies by therapist and according to client need.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Chicago Community Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• Jewish Child and Family Services

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Catholic Charities

  collaborator OTHER

• Community Counseling Centers of Chicago

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• The Family Institute at Northwestern University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• William Pinsof, Ph.D. · The Family Institute at Northwestern University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-12-31

Primary Completion

2017-01-31

Completion

2017-08-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations