A new scale for assessing the quality of randomized clinical trials of psychotherapy

Context: In 2004, the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Research on Psychiatric Treatments appointed a subcommittee to investigate the status of empirical evidence with regard to psychodynamic psychotherapy. Objective: As a part of this effort, the committee developed a rating scale designed to assess the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy Data Sources: A 25-item RCT of Psychotherapy Quality Rating Scale was generated by expert consensus Interrater reliability, internal consistency, and validity testing were undertaken using 7 trained raters Study Selection: A PubMed search was conducted to locate all RCTs of psychotherapies identified by their authors as being "psychodynamic" or "psychoanalytic" in origin and implementation. Data Extraction: A total of 69 RCTs were independently rated by 2 raters. Data Synthesis: The scale was found to have good interrater reliability (total score intraclass correlation = 0 76), internal consistency (Cronbach alpha =.87), and external validity. Conclusions: This scale establishes a new standard for the design and execution of psychotherapy RCTs and provides a systematic empirical method for evaluating the quality of published RCTs. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved