Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:1070-1076
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
Conceptual and methodological issues in comparative studies of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, II: Nature and timing of treatment effects
I Elkin, PA Pilkonis, JP Docherty and SM Sotsky
Affective and Anxiety Disorders Research Branch, NIMH, Rockville, MD 20857.
This is the second of two articles on the conceptual and methodological
problems involved in comparing the effectiveness of drugs and psychotherapy
in the treatment of mental disorders. Part II focuses on differences
between psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in the nature of treatment
effects and related goals for treatment, differences in the time course of
treatment effects, and potential sources of bias in the research setting.
In designing comparative studies of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy,
investigators should address methodological choices explicitly and consider
the implications for interpretation of findings.
