Recruiting

Psychotherapy Outcome

Sponsor:

The Family Institute at Northwestern University

Code:

NCT02023736

Conditions

Individual Psychiatric Disorder

Couple Dysfunction

Family Dysfunction

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 12+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC)

Treatment as Usual

Study Details

Brief summary:

This study is a comparison of client outcomes in two different types of psychotherapy treatment. In one condition clients will receive treatment-as-usual (TAU); the therapy that they would normally receive. In the other condition clients will receive treatment-as-usual but in addition their therapist will have access to empirical feedback on client progress. Clients in the feedback condition will fill out weekly online questionnaires, and their therapists will have access to a website that feeds back the results of these questionnaires. The purpose of the study is to understand the impact of providing such feedback to therapists. Participating therapists at 4 sites will offer all of their clients the opportunity to participate, and participating clients will be randomly assigned to either condition. This should result in a representative sample of client seeking treatment at these 4 Chicago-area clinics.

Conditions

Individual Psychiatric Disorder

Couple Dysfunction

Family Dysfunction

Study ID

NCT02023736

Start date

Dec, 2013

Status verified date

Aug, 2016

Completion date

Aug, 2017

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jan, 2017

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 12+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Client seeks therapy at one of the 4 participating sites
  • For Individual therapy: client must consent and complete pre-test battery before the first therapy session
  • For couple therapy: both clients must consent and complete pre-test battery before the first therapy session
  • For family therapy: at least one client must consent and complete pre-test battery before the first therapy session
  • Clients must be 12 years of age or older
  • Clients must be able to read (English or Spanish) at a 6th grade level

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Clients under 12 years of age
  • Clients incapable of reading at a 6th grade level
  • Clients who are blind, or are have sufficiently impaired sight as to be unable to read the questions on the web portal

Study Design

Enrollment

1000 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

active comparator: Treatment as Usual

Patients in the Treatment as Usual condition receive the same psychotherapy treatment as they would were they not enrolled in the study.

experimental: Treatment as Usual with the STIC (TAU + STIC)

Patients in the TAU + STIC condition receive the treatment that they normally would from their therapist, but with the addition of the STIC measurement and feedback system.

Interventions

Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC)

The STIC is a computerized measurement and feedback system for use in psychotherapy. The measurement system consists of weekly questionnaires, completed on the computer, that target symptoms and functioning in a variety of domains of a clients life (e.g., individual symptoms, couple functioning, family functioning, relationship with children). The feedback system consists of a web-portal where therapists may access their clients' STIC responses, for the purposes of planning treatment, assessing progress, and discussing change with clients.

Treatment as Usual

Clients receive psychotherapy treatment as planned and implemented by their psychotherapists. Exact type of treatment varies by therapist and according to client need.

Primary outcome measure

  • Change in mental health symptoms at termination [ Time Frame: At the termination of therapy (varies naturally case-to-case, but an average of 7 weeks) clients complete the outcome packet that asks about mental health symptoms in the previous month. ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Jacob Z Goldsmith, Ph.D.

847 733 4300jgoldsmith2@family-institute.org

Locations

Community Counseling Centers of Chicago

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60640

Jewish Child and Family Services

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60645

Catholic Charities

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60654

The Family Institute at Northwestern University

Recruiting

Evanston, Illinois, United States, 60201

Principal Investigator:

William Pinsof, Ph.D.

More Information

Sponsor

The Family Institute at Northwestern University

Last update posted

Aug 9, 2016

Last verified

Aug, 2016

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by The Family Institute at Northwestern University on 2016-08-09.