What is Evidence Based Treatment Anyways?

You may have noticed the term “evidence-based treatment” mentioned a few times on our website. You may recognize it from hospital websites as well. If you did, you may be wondering “what does evidence-based treatment mean anyways?”

In a nutshell, evidence-based treatments are interventions (can be therapy, a medical intervention, etc.) that have been tested in research laboratories and clinical settings. Adding a new therapy to the list of available treatments requires many carefully planned and executed steps. First, researchers must be very familiar with the existing literature on available evidenced-based treatments in their field of study. Next, researchers/clinicians define their new treatment by creating a step-by-step, time-limited (e.g. 16 sessions over 15 weeks) protocol that clinicians and clients can follow to build skills to manage/reduce symptoms. Then, researchers may compare a new treatment to a wait-list condition, asking if the new treatment has more positive impacts than the passage of time alone. If it does, the treatment is then compared to one or more gold-standard treatments in the field. The goal at this stage is to say that the new treatment is as good as (or hopefully better) than the treatments that are currently available.

After these two phases, the results have to be replicated- by many researchers, in many settings, in different populations to see if the results hold up. Only after the completion of numerous studies can a treatment be considered evidence-based. After years (or even decades) of being disseminated and tested, it may become a gold standard.

At this point, you may be thinking “wait, isn’t every therapy/treatment offered by therapists/psychologists evidence-based?” Surprisingly, no. Many therapists offer “talk therapy” or techniques that have not stood the test of science. So, whether you are coming to us, or seeking services elsewhere, we recommend asking your treatment provider if they are employing evidence-based treatments.

At GVP, we prioritize evidence-based research, offering clients treatments that have stood the test of years of scientific vetting- thus, we engage in evidence-based practice. We also take things one step further, collecting data on clients/patients, to make sure these treatment are working at GVP. Together with the clinician, our clients/patients can look at their data to see if treatment is working and talk about any adjustments that can be made to improve treatment.

At GVP, we learn not only from the field of psychology, but also from our clinical work. We also engage in practice-based research. By keeping a close eye and open perspective on our clinical work, we are often inspired by it to create studies/experiments of our own, contributing back to the field of psychology.

-Dr. Lauren P. Wadsworth

Founder, Anxiety and OCD Track Director; Genesee Valley Psychology