[The evaluation of community psychiatric services. Some methodological problems (author's transl)]

We have now come to accept that any new pharmacological treatment must be comprehensively and intensively evaluated before it is introduced into general clinical practice. The thalidomide tragedy has illustrated the dangers of inadequate testing. It is less obvious, however, that psychosocial treatments need to be assessed just as stringently. The claims made for new forms of social treatment and new forms of service are very large. The effects, for example, of turning from a predominantly hospital-based service to one which depends on the co-ordination of a large number of smaller community agencies, are potentially much greater than anything that could be expected from the introduction of a new drug. Itis essential that psychiatrists play their full part in this new and rapidly developing field of investigation.