Testing the Effectiveness of Process Based Therapy in Routine Patient Care and Assessing Its Influence on Therapist Decision Making

Summary

Background: Process Based Therapy (PBT) is a novel approach for a more personalized psychotherapy by integrating patient's ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data into treatment planning and focusing on empirically measured maladaptive processes. Previous pilot studies have examined the efficacy and feasibility of PBT in different settings. However, the effectiveness of this approach as well as the influence of providing EMA data on therapist's decision-making as well as treatment planning is yet unexplored.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of PBT in a naturalistic setting as well examine the influence of the provision of EMA data on therapists' decision-making.

Methods: Thiry therapists as well as 60 patients will be recruited. Therapists will each treat two patients which are randomly allocated to either an intervention group receiving PBT or an active control group receiving routine psychotherapy. Treatment outcomes will be measured pre and post treatment as well as a 6-month follow-up. Therapists' decision making will be measured before training in PBT as well as during the treatment process using think aloud protocols (TAP) as well as quantitative measurements for decision making styles and self efficacy in decision making.

Discussion: This study could add insights into the ongoing research about the efficacy and effectiveness of PBT as well as provide insights into therapists' treatment decisions. While PBT holds theoretical promise for a more personalized and effective treatment, empirical data is still needed to assess its theoretical merit, which this study could provide. Expanding on the thus far scarce literature on decision-making in the therapeutic process, valuable information about processes guiding therapists' treatment decisions could be gained.

Conditions

• Depressive and Anxiety Disorders

Interventions

OTHER

Process Based Psychotherapy (PBT)

Intervention planning based on the use of EMA data, feedback of dynamic network analysis and matching of interventions to central nodes of the network.

OTHER

Routine practice

Intervention planning as usual.

DRUG

Psychiatric medication kept constant over study duration

Psychiatric medication is kept constant during the trial. Participants are not required to take medication. If participants enlisting in the trial are on medication however, they will be asked to keep medication constant over the study duration

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Goethe University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ulrich Stangier, PhD · Goethe Universität Frankfurt

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-06-27

Primary Completion

2029-01-01

Completion

2029-01-01

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations