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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Hyperscanning Study in Psychological Counseling
Published on: January 17, 2025
A new scale for assessing the quality of randomized clinical trials of psychotherapy
James H Kocsis1, Andrew J Gerber, Barbara Milrod
1Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10065, USA. jhk2002@med.cornell.edu
Context:
In 2004, the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on Research on Psychiatric Treatments appointed a subcommittee to investigate the status of empirical evidence with regard to psychodynamic psychotherapy.
Objective:
As a part of this effort, the committee developed a rating scale designed to assess the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy.
Data Sources:
A 25-item RCT of Psychotherapy Quality Rating Scale was generated by expert consensus. Interrater reliability, internal consistency, and validity testing were undertaken using 7 trained raters.
Study Selection:
A PubMed search was conducted to locate all RCTs of psychotherapies identified by their authors as being "psychodynamic" or "psychoanalytic" in origin and implementation.
Data Extraction:
A total of 69 RCTs were independently rated by 2 raters.
Data Synthesis:
The scale was found to have good interrater reliability (total score intraclass correlation = 0.76), internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .87), and external validity.
Conclusions:
This scale establishes a new standard for the design and execution of psychotherapy RCTs and provides a systematic empirical method for evaluating the quality of published RCTs.
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