Differential Estimation of Treatment Effect Between Clinician‐Administered and Self‐Reported PTSD Assessments

Abstract

This study reported the findings of a meta‐analysis exploring differences between clinician‐administered (C‐A) and self‐reported (S‐R) outcomes of counseling and therapy interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder. A sample of 17 randomized trials resulted in 46 effect sizes (23 C‐A, 23 S‐R) representing the data of 1,405 participants. No statistically significant differences were detected between C‐A and S‐R outcome estimates alone or when considering treatment setting; however, differential estimates emerged for modality across age groups.

A comparison of treatment perspectives between adolescent males in residential treatment for substance use and their counselors

“…Despite these large effects, only coping was a stable finding with very large differences, fluctuation between small and large effects for problem severity and commitment to follow-up was evident. Taken as a whole, these findings were consistent with Lenz and Luo (2019) who noted moderate differences between child/adolescent responses and clinician responses when evaluating treatment outcomes of PTSD. Moreover, these findings are in contrast to Conelea et al (2012), who indicated similarities between adolescent self-report and clinician responses.…”

“…While authors did observe some order effects and other limitations to the study, they also acknowledge the accuracy and usefulness of the adolescents' own reported perceptions of their OCD symptoms. In contrast, Lenz and Luo (2019) conducted a meta-analysis comparing clinicianadministered and self-reported post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment outcomes with children and adolescents. Lenz and Luo found that youth reported treatment effects nearly half of a standard deviation larger than clinicians' "more conservative estimates" (p. 9).…”

“…Certainly, adolescents and clinicians may have opposing, or merely misaligned perspectives, when it comes to the efficacy of substance abuse treatment; however, given the significance of the adolescent's perception of self and how their self-worth is influenced by their beliefs about their progress in recovery (as conveyed by Lenz & Luo, 2019), the disparity between adolescent and clinician perspectives should be investigated. The gap may not be as wide as it was once thought to be.…”

Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness are not significantly associated with post-traumatic stress disorder symptom reduction in intensive treatment

“…Although we did use this golden standard to establish the PTSD diagnosis, because of the transfer from the CAPS-IV to the CAPS-5 during the data collection period, we could not use these scores as an outcome measure. Nevertheless, current research emphasizes the legitimate use of self-reported questionnaires by showing that there are no differences between clinician-administered and self-reported PTSD assessments (Lenz & Luo, 2019). Thirdly, although compliance of physical activity sessions was actively checked by the trained instructors, the exact engagement in and intensity of physical activity during the treatment programme was not monitored.…”