Volume 19, Issue 3
Evidence-Based Psychological Therapies: Limitations and future challenges
Abstract
In recent years evidence-based psychological treatments has developed a great deal integrating clinical expertise with the best available external evidence from systematic research. This approach has to deal with some methodological problems. Furthermore, there are some limitations to generalize the results of research to the routine clinical practice in community settings. In this paper the main difficulties to disseminate evidence-based psychological practice to mental health professional are pointed out. Likewise personal characteristics for clinical psychologists and the new problems related to unhappiness and emotional suffering that patients raise when seeking therapeutic help should be also considered. In order to reduce the research-practice gap, some future challenges and new lines of research in this area are suggested.
Keywords
evidence-based psychological treatments, efficacy/cost-effectiveness, limitations of empirically validated therapies