METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN IDENTIFYING EFFICACIOUS PSYCHOTHERAPIES

National discussions of health-care delivery systems have renewed the effort to identify empirically validated psychotherapies. Although the logic of efficacy studies in psychotherapy, which are used to empiric ally establish the efficacy of psychotherapy, is relatively simple, th e validity of inferences from these studies are ambiguous and the focu s on outcome obscures other important aspects of psychotherapy. Proble ms related to (a) common versus specific confounds, (b) difficulties i n disproving the uniform efficacy supposition, and (c) hazards in stan dardizing treatments are discussed. These problems make developing cri teria for establishing empirically validated treatments difficult; a c urrently proposed set of criteria for proving treatment efficacy is cr itiqued.