ABSTRACT
In a quest for accountability in the delivery of health services, health care policymakers in both government and private sectors are creating clinical practice guidelines, many of which heavily emphasize medical and pharmacological approaches. In any case, a number of specific issues require substantial additional attention in the context of research on clinical utility. Psychotherapy research has produced a distinct trend away from schools of psychotherapy toward more eclectic approaches drawing on procedures from a variety of psychotherapeutic orientations. The psychotherapeutic procedures are as effective as or more effective than pharmacological approaches with proven efficacy, or they greatly enhance the effects of drugs. These psychological treatments are by no means limited to cognitive-behavioural interventions but range across family systems interventions, interpersonal psychotherapy, and brief psychodynamic interventions for a variety of disorders ranging from anxiety disorders, to schizophrenia, to autism. There are at least two effective treatments for eating disorders: cognitive-behavioural therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy.
