Assessing the Evaluation of Clinical Significance in Mental Health Intervention Studies: A Systematic Review.
Disciplines
Psychology
Abstract (300 words maximum)
A key step in the development and refinement of new mental health interventions is to formally evaluate their effects in clinical trials and other intervention studies. When reporting findings in intervention studies for mental health, it is important to evaluate the clinical significance of the intervention to gauge if the changes participants experience are enough to meaningfully improve their lives. Additionally, consistency in the way that clinical significance is reported would allow comparison between related and unrelated studies alike. This study aimed to find how many intervention studies for mental health formally evaluate the clinical significance of the intervention in a quantifiable way, as well as the consistency of the methods used. To do so, we conducted a review of 3 prominent journals that published results of intervention studies across the years 2020-2023, recording whether each study evaluated clinical significance, and which method was used. We expect to find that studies are inconsistent in reporting clinical significance and when measured, use varying methods. Preliminary results from 39 published clinical trials in psychology show that just 8 of the 39 studies formally tested the clinical significance of the intervention. Additionally, there were 8 distinct ways clinical significance was tested, including 4 distinct ways the same formula was operationalized. This research suggests that intervention studies for mental health should increase efforts to report clinical significance and adopt more consistent practices for measuring and reporting findings. Doing so would allow different studies to be compared directly and enable consumers of research to have adequate information about the clinical significance of interventions in the study. The goal is to establish recommendations for future clinical trials, standardizing methods for reporting evaluation of clinical significance and reliable change.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - Psychological Science
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Alexander Chrenshaw
Assessing the Evaluation of Clinical Significance in Mental Health Intervention Studies: A Systematic Review.
A key step in the development and refinement of new mental health interventions is to formally evaluate their effects in clinical trials and other intervention studies. When reporting findings in intervention studies for mental health, it is important to evaluate the clinical significance of the intervention to gauge if the changes participants experience are enough to meaningfully improve their lives. Additionally, consistency in the way that clinical significance is reported would allow comparison between related and unrelated studies alike. This study aimed to find how many intervention studies for mental health formally evaluate the clinical significance of the intervention in a quantifiable way, as well as the consistency of the methods used. To do so, we conducted a review of 3 prominent journals that published results of intervention studies across the years 2020-2023, recording whether each study evaluated clinical significance, and which method was used. We expect to find that studies are inconsistent in reporting clinical significance and when measured, use varying methods. Preliminary results from 39 published clinical trials in psychology show that just 8 of the 39 studies formally tested the clinical significance of the intervention. Additionally, there were 8 distinct ways clinical significance was tested, including 4 distinct ways the same formula was operationalized. This research suggests that intervention studies for mental health should increase efforts to report clinical significance and adopt more consistent practices for measuring and reporting findings. Doing so would allow different studies to be compared directly and enable consumers of research to have adequate information about the clinical significance of interventions in the study. The goal is to establish recommendations for future clinical trials, standardizing methods for reporting evaluation of clinical significance and reliable change.