EBMH notebook
APA, NAMI, NMHA, and evidence-based behavioural medicine: a comment
1 University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2 University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA
3 Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Abbreviations: APA, American Psychiatric Association • NAMI, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill • NMHA, National Mental Health Association
Key Words: American Psychiatric Association • National Alliance for the Mentally Ill • National Mental Health Association
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In February of 2005, The American Psychiatric Association (APA), National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), and the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) released a statement publicly criticising the use of evidence-based research reviews for policy decisions affecting patients. Further, they argued against the use of evidence-based standards to guide reimbursement for healthcare services. We reviewed the statement and are concerned that many of the arguments are incorrect or misleading. In this note, we offer our responses by reproducing quotes from the APA-NAMI-NMHA statement and commenting on the merits of the arguments.
The statement suggests that clinical experience should be given great weight in evidence-based decisions. The statement argues:
"... true evidence-based approaches marry all available and appropriate scientific research with clinical experience to ensure treatments lead to the best possible outcomes."
We agree that clinical expertise is essential to discern which treatments supported by scientific evidence best match the
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- Thorsten Schumann
- EBMH Online, 30 May 2006 [Full text]
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