title: A new scale for assessing the quality of randomized clinical trials of psychotherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In 2004, the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Research on Psychiatric Treatments appointed a subcommittee to investigate the status of empirical evidence with regard to psychodynamic psychotherapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  As a part of this effort, the committee developed a rating scale designed to assess the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 25-item RCT of Psychotherapy Quality Rating Scale was generated by expert consensus. Interrater reliability, internal consistency, and validity testing were undertaken using 7 trained raters.
  
  
  METHODS
  A PubMed search was conducted to locate all RCTs of psychotherapies identified by their authors as being "psychodynamic" or "psychoanalytic" in origin and implementation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 69 RCTs were independently rated by 2 raters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The scale was found to have good interrater reliability (total score intraclass correlation = 0.76), internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .87), and external validity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This scale establishes a new standard for the design and execution of psychotherapy RCTs and provides a systematic empirical method for evaluating the quality of published RCTs.
authors.affiliation: Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10065, USA. jhk2002@med.cornell.edu
authors.forename: James H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kocsis
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Milrod
authors.forename: Steven P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Roose
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barber
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Thase
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Leon
mesh_terms: D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome