Therapist effects in the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program and other psychotherapy studies

摘要

We appreciate this opportunity to react to the two studies in this issue of Psychotherapy Research (Elkin, Falconnier, Martinovich, Mahoney; Wampold) that address therapist effects on outcome in the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program (TDCRP; Elkin et al., 1989). The fact that one of these articles (Elkin et al., 2005) reports no reliable therapist outcome differences in the TDCRP and the other (Wampold et al., 2005) reports significant therapist effects, and suggests that therapist effects in the TDCRP are crucial for understanding a Treatment x Initial Severity interaction, indicates that important questions remain about how best to analyze and interpret differences between therapists in the context of a randomized clinical trial testing treatment effects.