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Martin Bergström. Photo: Patrik Hekkala

Martin Bergström

Senior lecturer | Associate Professor | PhD in Social Work

Martin Bergström. Photo: Patrik Hekkala

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

Author

  • Cecilia Andrée Löfholm
  • Lars Brannstrom
  • Martin Bergström
  • Kjell Hansson

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.

Department/s

  • School of Social Work

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