CURRENT PROGRESS AND FUTURE-PLANS FOR DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS- COMMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES

Examined the conclusions and implications of articles in this special issue. Treatments can be differentiated on their empirical basis and, for the problems reviewed, one can identify treatments of choice. To b uild on the documented advances, we provide a blueprint for progress i n treatment research. The blueprint focuses on a series of steps that involve conceptualization of clinical dysfunction and treatment, suppo rtive research on these conceptual views, careful specification of tre atment, evaluation of treatment outcome, and tests of mediators and mo derators of treatment. To improve research, we recommend expanding ass essment, addressing a broad range of questions about treatment, attend ing to measures of clinical significance, replicating key findings, an d investigating the transportability of the findings to service-orient ed clinical settings.