Guidelines for the psychotherapies in comprehensive psychiatric care: A discussion paper

This discussion paper concerning guidelines on the practice of the psychoth erapies by psychiatrists has been developed by a working group of the Steer ing Committee on the Psychotherapies formed in 1996 by the Canadian Psychia tric Association (CPA) to address the practice of psychotherapy by Canadian psychiatrists. This paper provides the profession with guidelines for clin ical care related to the practice of the psychotherapies that reflect best practices based on the available evidence, with the aim of improving standa rds of practice within the profession. Such guidelines are intended to be l inked to emerging strategies for medical education, as well as continuing m edical education (CME) and clinical quality assurance (CQA) initiatives wit hin the CPA. This paper reviews the literature, synthesizing theoretical an d research contributions and available empirical data. This Working Group h as attempted to reflect the clinical experience of Canadian psychiatrists a nd to report only material that could reasonably be applied to the various models of psychotherapy.