Bridging the gap between psychotherapy research and clinical practice: a multilevel meta-analysis of SCEDs, employing the MultiSCED software

The present study aims to move a step forward to bridge the gap between psychotherapy outcome research and clinical practice. A multilevel meta-analysis of 13 single case experimental designs (SCEDs) was conducted to evaluate the effects of Transactional Analysis (TA) psychotherapy on anxiety disorders, in an adult population. The Hierarchical Linear Model (a specific type of the multilevel modeling) was chosen with the exploratory aim to test its applicability in the psychotherapy outcome research field to assess treatments for common mental disorders. To this end, the MultiSCED software was employed, as an innovative instrument that could help psychotherapy research to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. Results need to be interpreted cautiously: while the majority of patients showed a reliable clinical change, only four of them presented significant regression coefficients at the individual level; besides, across all cases, none of the estimates did reach the statistical significance. Therefore, based on the current findings, it was not possible to affirm that the changes detected can be attributed to the effects of Transactional Analysis on treating anxiety disorders. Finally, limitations of the study and recommendations for future multilevel meta-analysis of SCEDs in this population are discussed.