ArticleBMJ mental health2025
Access to treatment protocols and manuals for evidence-based psychological interventions for severe mental disorders: a survey of randomised trials included in network meta-analyses.
Article in BMJ mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis 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
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematically developed, comprehensive atlas of unique evidence-based psychological interventions for severe mental disorders.BMJ mental health · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEvidence-based psychological interventions for mental disorders are described in treatment protocols and manuals, which detail treatment components and conditions of application. Systematic evaluations of the accessibility of treatment protocols and manuals across multiple mental disorders are absent.
objectiveWe assessed whether treatment protocols or manuals for psychological interventions for severe mental disorders are accessible and publicly available. STUDY SELECTION AND ANALYSIS: We surveyed randomised controlled trials (RCTs) from six large network meta-analyses of psychological interventions for severe mental disorders (psychotic, borderline personality, substance use, bipolar, anorexia and bulimia nervosa). Between January 2024 and February 2025, we retrieved protocols and manuals of psychological intervention arms using a multipronged approach (published protocol, trial registries, author contact, commercial availability). We report the proportion of trials and intervention arms for which protocols or manuals were (1) Accessible, that is, retrievable by any method, and (2) Publicly versus commercially available.
findingsWe included 260 RCTs, with 422 active intervention arms. We retrieved published protocols for 20 RCTs (8%, 95% CI 5% to 12%) and contacted 450 authors for the remaining 240. Authors shared protocols for 43/240 trials (18%, 95% CI 13% to 23%), refused to share for 73 (30%, 95% CI 25% to 37%) and did not respond for 101 (42%, 95% CI 36% to 49%). Protocols or manuals were retrievable for 364 psychological intervention arms (86%, 95% CI 83% to 89%), with 191 available commercially (45%, 95% CI 40% to 50%) and 106 (25%, 95% CI 21% to 30%) publicly. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Retrieving detailed descriptions of psychological interventions used in trials, crucial for identifying treatment components, was challenging, resource-intensive and required multiple methods. Reliance on public availability and author sharing enabled access to about 40% of protocols or manuals.
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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.