IMPROVING THE TRANSITION FROM BASIC EFFICACY RESEARCH TO EFFECTIVENESS STUDIES - METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES AND PROCEDURES

This article proposes methodological strategies that, if used in treat ment outcome research, may help in the transition of efficacy research findings into effectiveness trials in clinical and service delivery s ettings. Alternative methodologies are proposed to examine how treatme nt effectiveness may vary as a function of degree of treatment structu re, treatment protocol compliance, psychotherapy integration into an o verall treatment regimen, participant selection and composition, and v ariations in treatment parameters. The discussion focuses on encouragi ng the retention of experimental control while stretching psychotherap y outcome research designs to encompass effectiveness issues.