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Efficacy in Psychotherapy
"It is a misconception that there is no scientific evidence that psychotherapy works".
'In controlled trials and in clinical practice psychotherapy results in benefits that markedly exceed those experienced by individuals who need mental health services but do not receive psychotherapy'. (APA 2012).
Randomised control trials (RCT's) are considered the gold standard of scientific experiments to test the efficacy and effectiveness of a medical treatment. It involves groups of people first being carefully selected for suitability for a particular trial. Then a randomly selected part of the group is given the treatment whilst the remainder of the group is given an alternative treatment. The effect is statistically measured by assessing the results. Below you will find the results of clinical trials indicating psychotherapy to be 3 times more effective than antidepressant medication.
Clinical Trial Framework
The following clinical trial result indicators are generally accepted:
0.2 = clear evidence of a small improvement
0.5 = clear evidence of a moderate improvement
0.8 = clear evidence of a large improvement
Antidepressant Medication Results:
Citalopram = 0.24
Prozac = 0.26
Overall average (12 medications) = 0.31
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Results:
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy = 0.97
General Psychotherapy = 0.85
Research source: Turner et al (2008), Shedler (2010).
I practice counselling and psychotherapy in Thaxted, Essex:
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