The STIC Norway RCT Study: Using Feedback in Psychotherapy. (STICNorway)

April 22, 2020 updated by: Terje Tilden, PhD, Modum Bad

The STIC Online Feedback System in Psychotherapy Process-outcome Research: A Multi-site, Multi-modality, International RCT-study.

Feedback in psychotherapy involves clients monitoring therapy process and progress, and on a frequent basis clients register these data into online questionnaires. These data are then fed back to the therapist, hence informing about the process and progress in therapy. This information can be shared with the client, something that may enhance the client involvement in evaluating and planning of the therapy. The same data can be used for research purpose. This randomized controlled multicenter study within Norwegian couple and family contexts will explore the effects of feedback in natural settings, and it collaborates closely with a similar American study in Chicago/Evanston, Ill.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The improvement rate in psychotherapy is generally regarded as 50%, while 10% of clients deteriorate after therapy. This indicates a potential for improvement. Research shows that in therapies with the lack of progress, the clients rarely express dissatisfaction about progress to their therapists, and parallel, these therapists consider the therapies to proceed in the right direction. There is therefore a need for more knowledge about (a) how to obtain reliable information about the therapy progress and process monitored frequently during the course of therapy, and (b) that this information is fed back to the therapist and the client so that they (c) jointly can evaluate and adjust the aims and means for improving the therapy, something that may (d) enable them to test more appropriate approaches. This clinical practice should also enhance the client collaboration and empowerment in therapy, hopefully leading to higher recovery rate, shorter treatments, and reduced drop-out. To date, there is limited research on whether and how the use of feedback can contribute to improved outcomes. Such research is especially lacking in couple and family therapy. In a 3-year Norwegian pilot project at the Center for Family and relationships, Modum Bad, Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Sørlandet Sykehus, and at Ålesund family counseling office, the online-based feedback system STIC (Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change) has been implemented and tested. The clinical experience is positive, and the system is considered suitable. This project has evolved parallel to a similar project at the Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., supervised by the founder of the STIC system, professor William M. Pinsof. The project now enters a new phase by conducting a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) at three Norwegian couple- and family therapy sites in collaboration with five American psychotherapy sites to investigate whether the use of ongoing feedback is associated to more effective therapy compared with therapy without use of feedback.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

328

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Norway
    • Buskerud
      • Drammen, Buskerud, Norway, 3000
        • Drammen - Kongsberg family agency
      • Vikersund, Buskerud, Norway, 3370
        • Center for family and relationship, Modum Bad
    • Vest Agder
      • Kristiansand, Vest Agder, Norway, 4604
        • ABUP, Sørlandet sykehus

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

12 years to 70 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT, CHILD)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • individuals,
  • couples,
  • families in Norwegian couple- and family therapy contexts

Exclusion Criteria:

  • psychosis,
  • current drug and alcohol abuse,
  • violent and threatening behavior,
  • not enable to understand Norwegian or English language.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: NONE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: The use of STIC feedback system
This will constitute the experimental condition, using of STIC feedback system.
Other: STIC feedback system
This condition includes the use of the STIC feedback system.
EXPERIMENTAL: Treatment as usual
This condition will not include the use of the STIC feedback system.
Other: STIC feedback system
This condition includes the use of the STIC feedback system.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Beck Depression Inventory II
Time Frame: The BDI was completed at the start and end of treatment. In this study the treatment length varied from two to 22 sessions.
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II - Beck et al., 1995a) is a widely used 21-item self-report questionnaire assessing cognitive, affective, motivational, and physiological symptoms of depression and variation over time. Items are scored on a scale from 0 to 3 and the sum-score expressed the depth of the depression, graded from no clinical depression (0-9), through mild (10-19), moderate (20-29) and severe depression (30-63). The BDI shows adequate psychometric properties (Beck et al., 1995b).
The BDI was completed at the start and end of treatment. In this study the treatment length varied from two to 22 sessions.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Modum Bad

Collaborators

Stiftelsen Helse og Rehabilitering

Investigators

  • Study Director: KariAnne Vrabel, PhD, Modum Bad Research Institute

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

June 1, 2013

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

October 15, 2016

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

October 15, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 21, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 7, 2013

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

June 10, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

May 4, 2020

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 22, 2020

Last Verified

April 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1-Tilden
  • 2012/2/0275 (OTHER: Rådet for psykisk helse, Norway)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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