How do therapists assess suitability? A qualitative study exploring therapists' judgements of treatment suitability for depressed adolescents.

Background: Despite the need for a better understanding of treatment suitability, how it is determined by therapists in real‐life practice is still unknown. The study aimed to explore how therapists working with depressed teenagers make judgements about treatment suitability across three treatment modalities: (a) Short‐term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, (b) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, and (c) Brief Psychosocial Intervention. Methods: The study used a qualitative analysis within a randomised controlled trial. Therapists' judgements of treatment suitability were studied via an exploratory content analysis. This trial is registered with current controlled trials, number ISRCTN83033550. Results and Discussion: A wide range of factors were considered in therapists' judgements of suitability, with significant variation in themes across treatment modalities. Although a much higher number of therapists judged the allocated treatment modality to be suitable to the client than not, many also indicated ambivalence and uncertainty towards their decision‐making. This demonstrates a possibility that treatment suitability may be more accurately assessed as a continuum over multiple time points throughout treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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