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Evaluation of Treatment Integrity: The Treatment Specificity Index
Florian Grikscheit1, Florian Weck2, Martin Hautzinger3
1University of Frankfurt.
Objective:
To differentiate between treatments in a randomized controlled trial (RCT), therapies need to display not only high purity but also high specificity. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the benefits of calculating a treatment specificity index for the evaluation of treatment differentiation.
Method:
Based on an RCT of relapse prevention in depression, comparing a cognitive with a psychoeducational treatment, the specificity and the purity index were calculated.
Results:
As indicated by the specificity index, both conditions differed in their levels of implemented specific and common interventions. A significant relationship was found between symptom change before a therapy session and treatment specificity.
Conclusions:
The specificity index is an appropriate method for enhancing the internal validity of RCTs in evaluating treatment integrity.
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