ArticleEpidemiology and psychiatric sciences2016
How to prove that your therapy is effective, even when it is not: a guideline.
Article in Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of sexual health interventions in reducing risky sexual behaviors among people living with HIV: a network meta-analysis and systematic review.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Primary-level and community worker interventions for the prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of well-being in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Psychological interventions for interoception in mental health disorders: A systematic review of randomized-controlled trials.Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2023Pooled it
- Assessing the risk of symptom worsening in psilocybin-assisted therapy for depression: A systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis.Psychiatry research · 2023Pooled it
- Control interventions in randomised trials among people with mental health disorders.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Effectiveness of psychological interventions in prison to reduce recidivism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- School-based interventions to prevent anxiety and depression in children and young people: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- CONSORT-SPI 2018 Explanation and Elaboration: guidance for reporting social and psychological intervention trials.Trials · 2018Guideline
- An umbrella review of the literature on the effectiveness of psychological interventions for pain reduction.BMC psychology · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Results of the Optimune trial: A randomized controlled trial evaluating a novel Internet intervention for breast cancer survivors.PloS one · 2021Trial
- Affect-Focused Psychodynamic Internet-Based Therapy for Adolescent Depression: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Trial
- Animal-Assisted Therapy in the Residential Treatment of Dual Pathology.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Trial
- Re-visiting professional ethics in psychotherapy: reflections on the use of talking therapies as a supportive adjunct for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and 'medically unexplained symptoms'.Journal of medical ethics · 2026Article
- Work disability status following routine mental health treatment: a Norwegian registry-based cohort study.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The PACE Trial's GET Manual for Therapists Exposes the Fixed Incremental Nature of Graded Exercise Therapy for ME/CFS.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Commentary: Cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome in adults: a short analysis of the meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
- Open Science Standards at Journals that Inform Evidence-Based Policy.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2023Review
- Evaluation of randomized controlled trials: a primer and tutorial for mental health researchers.Trials · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsSuppose you are the developer of a new therapy for a mental health problem or you have several years of experience working with such a therapy, and you would like to prove that it is effective. Randomised trials have become the gold standard to prove that interventions are effective, and they are used by treatment guidelines and policy makers to decide whether or not to adopt, implement or fund a therapy.
methodsYou would want to do such a randomised trial to get your therapy disseminated, but in reality your clinical experience already showed you that the therapy works. How could you do a trial in order to optimise the chance of finding a positive effect?
resultsMethods that can help include a strong allegiance towards the therapy, anything that increases expectations and hope in participants, making use of the weak spots of randomised trials (risk of bias), small sample sizes and waiting list control groups (but not comparisons with existing interventions). And if all that fails one can always not publish the outcomes and wait for positive trials.
conclusionsSeveral methods are available to help you show that your therapy is effective, even when it is not.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.