[Are patients in randomised controlled trials of psychotherapy representative for clinical practice?]. / Zijn patiënten in gerandomiseerde gecontro- leerde onderzoeken over psychotherapie representatief voor de klinische praktijk?

BACKGROUND: In the debate about evidence-based psychotherapy it is often assumed that randomised controlled trials (RCT's) have a limited generalizable. Among the reasons for this assumption are the strict exclusion criteria which rule out patients with comorbidity or multiple diagnoses. AIM: To investigate whether these strict exclusion criteria do effect the generalizable of RCT's. METHOD: Narrative overview of the research literature on psychotherapy. RESULTS: We found that the exclusion criteria infact have less effect than expected on the generalizable. CONCLUSION: Most patients from clinical practice can indeed be included in a RCT. Recent RCT's also include many patients with comorbidity.