Evidence-based treatment research: Advances, limitations, and next steps

Abstract

This article highlights the development of evidence-based treatments (EBTs), the accomplishment their development reflects, and the limitations of current variations as a way of providing mental health services and care. Rather than review EBTs, I use the occasion to provide an overview of my work on the development of treatments for children referred clinically for aggressive and antisocial behavior. This work reflects a larger genre of intervention research that has developed treatments for a variety of disorders. After years of research and a healthy list of EBTs, where are we and where do we need to be? It is still the case that most people in need of services do not receive them, and disparities in providing services remain enormous. The vast majority of therapies, whether evidence based or not, use a model of delivery (one-to-one in-person treatment) that is inherently limited as a way of reaching the large swath of people in need of services. Multiple models of delivery of treatment are needed. The article underscores the importance of developing these models of delivery and optimizing that development by understanding better the mechanisms of therapeutic change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).