Music therapy practice: relative perspectives in evidence-based reviews

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Notes

¹Here, a protocol refers to a specific and standardized intervention or plan for treatment.

²Efficacy research assesses the outcome that is associated with an intervention under ideal circumstances that allow for tight control, such as in clinical trials conducted in laboratory conditions. It offers enhanced internal validity but may have limited generalizability to real-world settings. Effectiveness research is conducted in settings that are closer to those in which actual clinical work occurs. It includes examination of diversity in settings, clinicians, and patients; cost-effectiveness of treatment; training issues; and patient and clinician satisfaction. It offers enhanced external validity but, because it is typically less controlled than efficacy research, the assumptions that can be made about causality are limited.

³This article will discuss only their study of systems for grading the strength of a body of evidence, although their report also includes information on rating individual articles in systematic reviews, RCTs, observational studies, and diagnostic test studies.

⁴At the time of this article (2009), there is some discussion in the state of Oregon to shift from state level evidence-based practice review systems to the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) maintained by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. This highlights the fact that there is a great deal of activity on the topic at many levels of government as well as within and across sectors.

⁵The authors of this article received feedback and answers to questions about aspect of their reviews from the autors of two of the autism reviews (Gold et al.-C. Gold, personal communication, June 8, 2007; Whipple-J. Whipple, personal communication, March 30, May 19, 2007) but not from the other two (NY State and Ball). They received feedback from the authors of three of the dementia reviews (Koger, Chapin, & Brotons-M. Brotons, personal communication, July 9, 2007, Dileo & Bradt-J. Bradt, personal communication, July 9, 2007; Vink et al.-A. Vink, personal communication, July 8, 2007(. There is no doubt that the additional information that was available from the authors made those analyses more complete and accurate.

⁷Markov models are used in decision analysis to attempt to more accurately represent complex processes that involve transition in and out of various states of health (Petitti, 1994, pp. 142–143). Only the outcome, not the health states, is visible to an external observer. The health states are “hidden” to the outside. Therefore, Markov Models are sometimes referred to as Hidden Markov Models (HMM).