FINDING, EVALUATING, REFINING, AND APPLYING EMPIRICALLY SUPPORTED TREATMENTS FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

Structured child and adolescent treatments, tested through controlled clinical trials, have produced beneficial effects in hundreds of studi es. By contrast, the limited pool or research on traditional clinical treatments raises doubts about their effectiveness. Thus, identificati on of empirically supported treatments may contribute something of rea l value to clinical practice and training. The Child Task Force report represents an important initial step in this direction. Here we offer both praise and critique, suggesting a number of ways the taskforce p rocess and product may be improved. In addition, we suggest several wa ys to strengthen and enrich the clinical trials research available to the Task Force, emphasizing the need to test empirically supported tre atments with referred youth in practice settings.