Methodology in Evaluation of Psychiatric Treatment

Book excerpt: First published in 1983, this book is a review of psychiatric treatment by experts in the field from the member countries of the European Medical Research Councils, organized by the European Science Foundation. The volume starts by enumerating the various methods for evaluating psychiatric treatment or evaluating the results of treating specific syndromes, and continues with a chapter on the aims of psychiatric treatment and three on methods of classification of mental diseases. The rest of the book deals with evaluation of treatment, starting with special problems encountered in the difficult areas of evaluation of psychotherapy and social therapeutic methods. There are five chapters on various rating scales and methods and one chapter each on psychophysiological and biochemical criteria in the evaluation of treatment. The last contribution to the book is on ethical and practical problems in theraputic research.