Evidenzbasierte Medizin und Psychotherapie: die Frage nach den angemessenen Erkenntnismethoden

Evidence-based Medicine (EbM) was accepted during the last decade both as a method for systematically evaluating risks and benefits and a decision aid for therapists in practice. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) have become the gold standard for medical research. The medical community is sceptical about RCTs because many therapists are not convinced that care can be mirrored adequately enough, though. The doubts are especially strong among psychiatrists and psychotherapists. The paper argues in favour of EbM in two ways. Firstly, from a scientific point of view there are no reasons why RCTs could not contribute to improve the standards of care. Secondly, health services research doesn't amount to much more than RCTs. The importance of qualitative methods is a black box as large within health services research as the meaningful use of RCTs.