Developing a European Psychotherapy Consortium (EPoC): Towards Adopting a Single-Item Self-Report Outcome Measure Across European Countries

Authors

  • Miguel M. Gonçalves Orcid
    CIPsi – Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
  • Wolfgang Lutz Orcid
    Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany
  • Brian Schwartz Orcid
    Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany
  • João Tiago Oliveira Orcid
    CIPsi – Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
  • Suoma E. Saarni Orcid
    Helsinki University Hospital, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • Orya Tishby
    Department of Psychology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
  • Julian A. Rubel Orcid
    Department of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
  • Jan R. Boehnke Orcid
    School of Health Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom
  • Adrian Montesano Orcid
    Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
  • Dario Paiva
    CIPsi – Psychology Research Center, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
  • Davide Ceridono Orcid
    Institute for Research on Intrapsychic and Relational Processes, IRPIR, Rome, Italy
  • Emmanuelle Zech Orcid
    Université Catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
  • Jochem Willemsen Orcid
    Université Catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
  • Samuli I. Saarni Orcid
    Helsinki University Hospital, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • Katarina Kompan Erzar Orcid
    University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Luís Janeiro Orcid
    University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal
  • Omar C. G. Gelo
    University of Salento, Salento, Italy
  • Paula Errázuriz Orcid
    Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile / PsiConecta Mental Health NGO, Santiago, Chile
  • Pawel Holas Orcid
    University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
  • Rafał Styła Orcid
    University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
  • Tatjana Rožič Orcid
    Sigmund Freud University Vienna – Ljubljana branch, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Tom Rosenström Orcid
    Helsinki University Hospital, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
  • Vera Békés Orcid
    Yeshiva University, New York, USA
  • Zsolt Unoka Orcid
    Semelweis Unversity, Hungarian Cognitive Behavior Therapy Association, Budapest, Hungary
  • Michael Barkham Orcid
    Clinical and Applied Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Abstract

Background: Complementing the development of evidence-based psychological therapies, practice-based evidence has developed from patient samples collected in routine care, addressing questions relevant to patients and practitioners, and thereby expanding our knowledge of psychological therapies and their impact. Implementation of assessments in routine care allows for timely clinical decision support and the collection of multiple practice-based data sets by addressing the needs of patients and clinicians (e.g., routine outcome monitoring) and the needs of researchers (e.g., identifying the impact of therapist variables on outcomes). Method: In this article we describe an initiative developed in Europe, through the European Chapter of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, aimed at creating a consortium that has the potential for collecting data on tens of thousands of patients per year. Results: A survey identified one of the main problems in the development of a common data set to be the heterogeneity of measures used by members (e.g., 87 different pre-post outcomes). We report on the results of the survey and the initial stage of identifying a single-item – the Emotional and Psychological Outcome (EPO-1) – measure and the process of its translation into multiple European languages. Conclusions: We conclude this first stage of the overall project by discussing the future potential of the Consortium in relation to the development of procedures that allow crosswalks of outcome measures and the creation of a task force that may be consulted when new data sets are collected, aiming for new common measures to be implemented and shared.

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