Toward a transdisciplinary model of evidence-based practice.

CONTEXT: This article describes the historical context and current developments in evidence-based practice (EBP) for medicine, nursing, psychology, social work, and public health, as well as the evolution of the seminal "three circles" model of evidence-based medicine, highlighting changes in EBP content, processes, and philosophies across disciplines. METHODS: The core issues and challenges in EBP are identified by comparing and contrasting EBP models across various health disciplines. Then a unified, transdisciplinary EBP model is presented, drawing on the strengths and compensating for the weaknesses of each discipline. FINDINGS: Common challenges across disciplines include (1) how "evidence" should be defined and comparatively weighted; (2) how and when the patient's and/or other contextual factors should enter the clinical decision-making process; (3) the definition and role of the "expert"; and (4) what other variables should be considered when selecting an evidence-based practice, such as age, social class, community resources, and local expertise. CONCLUSIONS: A unified, transdisciplinary EBP model would address historical shortcomings by redefining the contents of each model circle, clarifying the practitioner's expertise and competencies, emphasizing shared decision making, and adding both environmental and organizational contexts. Implications for academia, practice, and policy also are discussed.

Developing an integrated primary care practice: strategies, techniques, and a case illustration.

Numerous studies have now demonstrated that integrating behavioral health and medical care can reduce medical costs, improve patient and provider satisfaction, and enhance clinical outcomes. Given this, one might expect that behavioral health programs would be fully integrated into primary care clinics across the country, but in fact integrated primary care programs remain quite rare. One reason for this discrepancy is that implementing such programs has proven to be extraordinarily challenging. Most of the integrated programs that are currently operating successfully are in settings where professionals are all members of the same health care system (e.g., HMOs, the Veterans Administration, Departments of Family Practice, etc.). Many providers, however, are in communities where various services are provided in different locations from different organizations that have very different clinical, administrative, and financial structures. In these situations, the challenges are even greater. The authors describe a set of strategies and techniques providers can use to move their health care system toward a higher level of integration and illustrate how they applied these steps to develop and assess the impact of an integrated primary care program in the state of Rhode Island.

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews of psychological treatments for chronic pain: relevance to an evidence-based practice.

As evidence-based practitioners become more reliant on systematic reviews to inform treatment, it becomes important to systematize reporting details as well as improve the quality of the primary studies that will later be incorporated into this secondary literature. In this article, the authors consider several specific factors that can serve this function in the area of chronic pain: (a) adhering to a standardized set of reporting standards; (b) measuring a standardized set of short- and long-term outcome variables; (c) providing information about individual differences; and (d) providing detailed, easily accessible documentation of the treatment program (or progams). The article also highlights ways that practitioners and researchers can collaborate on treatment outcome research, thereby improving the ability to discover and disseminate effective treatments for patients who suffer from chronic pain.

Novel tools and resources for evidence-based practice in psychology.

Given the vast proliferation of scientific research in the behavioral and social sciences, there is a growing need for psychologists to be able to access the most current, clinically relevant research quickly and efficiently and integrate this information into patient care. In response to a similar need within the field of medicine, evidence-based medicine took hold in the early 1990s to provide both a framework and set of skills for translating research into practice. Since then, this method has been adopted by every major health care profession including psychology, and is now widely known as evidence-based practice (EBP). In this article, the authors present a general overview of the skills required for EBP along with an introduction to some of the tools and resources that have been developed in other health care professions to support EBP. Using a case example, we illustrate how these tools and resources can be applied in psychological settings.

Treating chronic migraine headaches: an evidence-based practice approach.

Psychologists and other mental health care professionals are generally trained to incorporate empirical evidence into clinical practice, but few have been taught formal techniques for doing so. Given the rapidity of progress in the clinical sciences, there is a growing need among practitioners to access current, clinically relevant research and have strategies for integrating these research findings into the clinic. In the field of medicine, evidence-based medicine took hold in the early 1990s to provide a framework and skill set for translating research into practice. This method is now widely known as evidence-based practice (EBP) to reflect its applicability to multiple disciplines. In this article, we present a general overview of EBP, illustrate how we used this approach to develop a treatment plan for a patient who had chronic migraine headaches, and discuss some of the opportunities and challenges EBP presents to mental health professionals.

Cognitive-behavioral group treatment for disabling headache.

OBJECTIVES: Severe, disabling headache is costly to individual sufferers, through pain and reduced functioning, and to society, through decreased work productivity and increased health care use. First-line prophylactic agents combined with triptans do not adequately benefit many disabled headache sufferers. We sought to investigate whether a cognitive-behavioral treatment targeting the psychological and behavioral factors that contribute to disabling headache may provide additional benefit and whether using a group format may provide a more intensive clinic-based treatment without increasing the cost of service delivery. DESIGN: We developed and piloted a cognitive-behavioral group treatment for chronic, disabling headache. We evaluated its effectiveness in decreasing headache, reducing symptomatic medication use, and improving quality of life. SETTING: A behavioral headache management program of an academic medical center. PATIENTS: Sixty-two individuals suffering from primary headache disorder with moderate to severe headache-related disability who completed treatment. INTERVENTIONS: Individuals completed a pretreatment evaluation, the 10-session cognitive-behavioral group treatment, and a 1-month-posttreatment evaluation. OUTCOME MEASURES: The impacts of treatment on headache (frequency, intensity, and duration), medication use, and quality of life were assessed. RESULTS: Separate multivariate analyses of variance revealed significant improvements in headache, symptomatic medication use, and quality of life. Overall, 50% of participants experienced at least a 50% reduction in headache frequency from pre- to posttreatment. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide preliminary evidence that delivering a clinic-based, group-format cognitive-behavioral treatment to moderately to severely disabled headache sufferers can decrease headache activity, reduce symptomatic medication use, and improve quality of life.