TABLE 1.

American Psychological Association Task Force Criteria for Evidence-Based Treatments

Criteria 1: Well-Established Treatments

1.1 There must be at least two good group-design experiments, conducted in at least two independent research settings and by independent investigatory teams, demonstrating efficacy by showing the treatment to be

a) superior to pill or psychological placebo or to another treatment

OR

b) equivalent to (or not significantly different from) an already established treatment in experiments with statistical power being sufficient to detect moderate differences

AND

1.2 treatment manuals or logical equivalent were used for the treatment

1.3 treatment was conducted with a population, treated for specified problems, for whom inclusion criteria have been delineated in a reliable, valid manner

1.4 reliable and valid outcome assessment measures were used, at minimum tapping the problems targeted for change

1.5 appropriate data analyses

Criteria 2: Probably Efficacious Treatments

2.1 There must be at least two experiments showing the treatment is superior (statistically significantly so) to a wait-list or no treatment control group

OR

2.2 One or more experiments meeting the Well-Established Treatment Criteria with the one exception of having been conducted in at least two independent research settings and by independent investigatory teams

Criterion 3: Possibly Efficacious Treatments

There must be at least one study showing the treatment to be efficacious in the absence of conflicting evidence

Note: Criteria adapted from Division 12 Task Force on Psychological Interventions (Chambless et al., 1998, Chambless et al., 1996) and from Chambless and Hollon (1998).