Treatment‐as‐usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter?
Abstract
Andrée Löfholm C, Brännström L, Olsson M, Hansson K. Treatment‐as‐usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter? A hallmark of an evidence‐based practice (EBP) is the systematic appraisal of research related to the effectiveness of interventions. This study addressed the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies that use treatment‐as‐usual (TAU) as a comparator. Using randomised controlled studies that evaluate the effectiveness of multisystemic therapy as an illustrative example, we show that TAU includes a wide variety of treatment alternatives. Estimated treatment effects on recidivism suggest that TAU seems to contain a greater variation in underlying risk than experimental conditions, supporting the hypothesis that the content of TAU could affect outcomes. Implications for the realisation of an EBP are discussed.
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TAU is standardly used in pragmatic clinical trials.
“Although far from perfect as a control condition, TAU is standardly used in pragmatic clinical trials for these and other reasons [77,78].”
From Clinical Efficacy and Psychological Mechanisms of an App-Based Digital Therapeutic for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Randomized Controlled Trial (2021) · cites this paper as [77]
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- Authors
- Löfholm, C. A., Brännström, L., Olsson, M., & Hansson, K.
- Affiliations
- National Board of Health and Welfare (SE)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- Lund University (SE)
- Venue
- International Journal of Social Welfare
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-02-28
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 25-34
- ISSN
- 0907-2055 (ISSN-L)
- 1369-6866
- 1468-2397
- OpenAlex
- W1849235302
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 2.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Social Welfare (publishedVersion)
- Lund University Publications (Lund University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Evaluation and Performance Assessment
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Policy Implementation Science
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Keywords
- usual care, effectiveness research, multisystemic therapy, recidivism, evidence-based practice, randomized controlled trials, juvenile offenders, intervention effectiveness
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