Psychotherapy Research: Inertia, Recruitment, and National Policy
CLYDE H. WARD M.D.1, and
JOHN C. RICHARDS M.D.2
1 Assistant professor of psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 203 Piersol Building, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104
2 Staff psychiatrist, Penn Foundation for Mental Health, Sellersville, Pa.
The much-attested reluctance of clinicians to join in psychotherapy research was tested by presenting a clinically optimal proposal to 100 of the best qualified therapists in Philadelphia. Extensive interview follow-ups demonstrated a resistance so intense that probably no more than 25 percent of the clinicians could ever be recruited. Collaborative multi-group effort is seen as the best solution to this "inertia" problem.
