[History of empirical psychotherapy research with special reference to the psychotherapy with children and adolescents]

Abstract

In the first fifty years of modern psychotherapy, most psychotherapists believed that it was not possible to investigate the efficacy of psychotherapy by means of empirical-statistical methods. Only in the second half of the 20th century, systematic psychotherapy research was initiated. Since this time a dynamic development of psychotherapy research can be observed, resulting in a rapidly growing knowledge base about processes and outcomes. In the first phase of research, the general question had to be answered, whether psychotherapy is able at all to cause the desired effects. After it had become evident that psychotherapy results are undoubtedly impressive, research emphasis was placed on the question "What works for whom" i. e. which therapy packages are effective for specific disorders. This disorder-specific research tasks are still prevailing; but now, after the first decade of the 21st century psychotherapy, research is confronted with additional and new challenges, which are outlined in the article.