Therapist Effects Over Time: A Multilevel Modelling Analysis - v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Therapist Effects Over Time: A Multilevel Modelling Analysis
IRAS ID
192162
Contact name
Robert Johns
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sheffield
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
The study investigates (a) the size of the effect of the therapist on depression outcomes and whether this therapist effect is stable over time, (b) whether stability of therapist effect is a function of stepped-care (i.e. psychological wellbeing practitioners (PWP), cognitive behavioural therapists and counsellors working in different service steps), (c) the effect of moderating factors such as initial patient severity and (d) whether the efficiency of therapists (e.g. duration of treatments and between session gains) is also a stable characteristic.
These questions will be addressed via analysis of an existing anonymised and routinely collected dataset from the Sheffield Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service. This includes routinely collected patient outcome measures, therapist and patient information. Statistical analysis will principally involve multilevel modelling, which allows patient outcome data to be nested within individual therapists. Analysis can then compare variability between the two levels (patient and therapist) to assess the extent of therapist effects. Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis will then be used to test for differences across time, splitting data into separate time periods, thus enabling comparison of 95% probability intervals.
As the data has been collected as part of routine practice, therapists gained consent from patients for their data to be used at point of therapy and all data has been anonymised before being passed to the researcher.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0209
Date of REC Opinion
21 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion