Empirically Supported Psychological Interventions

Controversies and Evidence

Chambless, Dianne L.
Ollendick, Thomas H.

Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3270; e-mail: [email protected] (Chambless)
Child Study Center, Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0355; e-mail: [email protected] (Ollendick)

Annual Review of Psychology 52:p 685-716, 2001.

Efforts to increase the practice of evidence-based psychotherapy in the United States have led to the formation of task forces to define, identify, and disseminate information about empirically supported psychological interventions. The work of several such task forces and other groups reviewing empirically supported treatments (ESTs) in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere is summarized here, along with the lists of treatments that have been identified as ESTs. Also reviewed is the controversy surrounding EST identification and dissemination, including concerns about research methodology, external validity, and utility of EST research, as well as the reliability and transparency of the EST review process.