Who are we studying? Reporting practices and sample characteristics in psychotherapy research

Area of Science:

• Psychology and Mental Health Research
• Clinical Practice and Health Policy

Background:

• Psychotherapy research is crucial for informing clinical practice and mental health policy.
• However, inconsistent reporting of sample and contextual details hinders the assessment of research generalizability and representation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reporting of patient, therapist, treatment, and context (PTTC) characteristics in psychotherapy research.
• To identify the demographic and contextual profiles of participants typically included in these studies.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive review of 100 psychotherapy studies was conducted.
• A standardized codebook was used by independent reviewers to extract PTTC data.

Main Results:

• Patient demographics like age and gender were frequently reported, but education and race less so. Key characteristics such as sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigration status, rurality, and disability were rarely reported.
• Therapist demographics and treatment delivery details were also inconsistently reported. Contextual indicators like care system and level of care showed inconsistent reporting.
• The studies predominantly featured adult, female, urban, and tertiary-educated patients, with female psychologists as therapists, in individual outpatient settings within Europe and North America.

Conclusions:

• Psychotherapy research tends to overrepresent specific populations, including adults, women, urban residents, and those with tertiary education from higher-income settings.
• Current reporting standards in psychotherapy research obscure the conditions under which therapy is most effective, limiting its clinical applicability and generalizability.