Assessing Efficacy of Stuttering Treatments

Efficacy has been defined as the extent to which a specific intervention, procedure, regimen or service produces a beneficial result under ideally controlled conditions when administered or monitored by experts. Studies on efficacy can be divided into those that study methods of conducting treatment (treatment process research) and those that are concerned with the effects of treatments (treatment outcome research). This reviews both of these areas, emphasizes the former and considers such key determinants of efficacy as measurement, treatment integrity and design issues. A set of criteria is given and a meta-analysis of whether studies published since 1993 meet these criteria is reported (incorporating some pragmatic and ethical considerations). The review ends by considering future directions that warrant further investigation.