Umass amherst, Public land grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts

In a new research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst psychotherapy researcher, mental health care patients matched with therapists who had a strong track record of treating the patients' primary concerns had better results than patients who were not so matched.The findings of the study were published in JAMA Psychiatry and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.In addition, this "match effect" was even more beneficial and pronounced for patients with more severe problems and for those who identified as racial or ethnic minorities."One of the things we've been learning in our field is that who the therapist is matters," said lead author Michael Constantino, professor of clinical psychology and director of the Psychotherapy Research Lab, who seeks to understand the variability of outcomes among patients receiving mental health treatment."We've become very interested in this so-called therapist effect. Earlier on, there was a heavier emphasis on what the treatment was as opposed to who was delivering it," added Constantino.Constantino and colleagues have discovered, for example, that psychotherapists possess relative strengths and weaknesses in treating different types of mental health problems. Such performance "report cards" hold promise, then, for personalizing treatment toward what therapists do well.The researchers conducted a randomised clinical trial involving 48 therapists and 218 outpatients at six community clinics in a health care system in Cleveland, Ohio. They used a matching system based on how well a therapist has historically treated patients with the same concerns.The matching relied on a multidimensional outcomes tool called the Treatment Outcome Package (TOP), which assesses 12 symptomatic or functional domains: depression, quality of life, mania, panic or somatic anxiety, psychosis, substance misuse, social conflict, sexual functioning, sleep, suicidality, violence and work functioning.The matched group was compared to a group of patients who were case-assigned as usual, such as by therapist availability or convenience of office location."By collecting TOP data from enough patients treated by a given therapist, this outcomes tool can establish the domains in which that therapist is stably effective (historically, on average, their patients' symptoms reliably improved), neutral (historically, on average, their patients' symptoms neither reliably improved nor deteriorated), or ineffective (historically, on average, their patients' symptoms reliably deteriorated)," the paper stated.To qualify for matching, the therapists had to have completed a minimum of 15 cases with patients who had completed the TOP before and after treatment. For the trial, neither the patients nor the therapists knew if they had been matched or were case-assigned as usual."We think there would be an even stronger positive impact if the patients knew they were empirically well-matched versus assigned by chance," Constantino said."Such knowledge might cultivate more positive expectations, which are generally associated with better therapy outcomes," Constantino added.Post-therapy reports by patients showed that those in the matched group experienced significantly greater reductions in general impairment compared with those who were randomly assigned a therapist."We showed that with this matching system you can get a big bump in improvement rates," Constantino said.The finding that the improvement in the matched group was even greater among people who identified as racial or ethnic minorities may provide a way to address and improve mental health care access and quality in traditionally underserved populations, Constantino said.The JAMA Psychiatry paper concluded, "Notably, the good fit in this study came not from changing what the therapists did in their treatment, but rather who they treated. Capitalizing on whatever it is that a therapist historically does well when treating patients with certain mental health problems, the current data indicate that our match system can improve the effectiveness of that care, even with neither therapist nor patient being aware of their match status."( With inputs from ANI )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Umass AmherstFOLLOW

Umass amherst, Latest News

According to a new study, walking at least 7,000 steps a day reduced middle-aged people's risk of premature death from all causes by 50 per cent to 70 per cent, compared to that of other middle-aged people who took fewer daily steps. ...

A University of Massachusetts Amherst environmental health scientist has developed an "overlooked hypothesis" to help explain the projected global population decline beginning in 2064: social stress. ...

New research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst shows that enrolling 9th graders who are struggling academically in an ethnic studies course greatly improves the likelihood those students will graduate from high school and enroll in college ...

A University of Massachusetts Amherst team of scientists in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences is focused on understanding how muscle fatigue and changes in gait affect the ability of people in their 70s and 80s to remain active. ...

Older adults on a walk or hike, or just going about their daily routines, seem to experience greater fatigue than their younger counterparts. Such fatigue may ultimately affect their ability to participate in activities that are meaningful to them an ...

Researchers recently unveiled their discovery of a new process for making RNA. The resulting RNA is purer, more copious and likely to be more cost-effective than any previous process could manage. ...

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently unveiled their discovery of a new process for making RNA, which made the resulting RNA purer, more copious, and likely to be more cost-effective than any previous process. ...

In a new research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst psychotherapy researcher, mental health care patients matched with therapists who had a strong track record of treating the patients' primary concerns had better results than patients who ...