ABSTRACT
The concept of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is increasingly reflected in international debate as it relates to the medical care that should be available to society. This chapter is based on the following definition of EBM as put forward by David Sackett and four of his colleagues and published in the editorial of the 1996 British Medical Journal. It investigates the underlying perspectives of evidence-based medicine, endeavouring to prove that, for the therapeutic methods derived from psychoanalysis, evidence-based medicine is nothing new and identifying the unavoidable tensions that obviously exist. The chapter gives a brief outline of some examples of studies in psychoanalytic therapy that fit into the particular stages (Stage 0 and Stage IV). The therapeutic methods derived from psychoanalysis increasingly have to face the challenge of proving their effectiveness in the context of evidence-based research.
