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Treatment-as-usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter?

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Author

Summary, in English

A hallmark of an evidence-based practice (EBP) is the systematic appraisal of research related to the effectiveness of interventions. This study addressed the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies that use treatment-as-usual (TAU) as a comparator. Using randomised controlled studies that evaluate the effectiveness of multisystemic therapy as an illustrative example, we show that TAU includes a wide variety of treatment alternatives. Estimated treatment effects on recidivism suggest that TAU seems to contain a greater variation in underlying risk than experimental conditions, supporting the hypothesis that the content of TAU could affect outcomes. Implications for the realisation of an EBP are discussed.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

25-34

Publication/Series

International Journal of Social Welfare

Volume

22

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Social Work

Keywords

  • effectiveness studies
  • evidence-based practice
  • standard service
  • transportability
  • treatment-as-usual

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1369-6866