[Studies to Evaluate Outpatient Mental Health Services: Are Patients' Priorities Considered?]

Objective: To evaluate whether outcome measures in studies to evaluate outpatient mental health services reflect patients' priorities. Methods: Two systematic literature reviews were conducted to identify, 1) patients' priorities and 2) outcome measures that are used for evaluating outpatient mental health care. 3) The findings from the literature review for patients' priorities were contrasted with the findings from the literature review for outcome measures. Results: 19 patients' priorities and 48 outcome measures were identified. Only eight priorities were directly assessed by an outcome measure in evaluations of outpatient mental health care. Conclusion: The majority of studies that evaluate outpatient mental health care do not consider patients' priorities as an outcome.