Distinctions between treatment outcomes and their implications for treatment evaluation

Maintains that treatment outcomes are distinguished as ultimate, instrumental, and intermediate in terms of the role that they play in the treatment process. Ultimate outcomes signal the achievement of treatment objectives and are the criteria for treatment success. Instrumental outcomes are those that are assumed to be sufficient conditions for attainment of other outcomes without further intervention. Intermediate outcomes are those viewed as generally facilitative of continued treatment or as necessary preconditions for employment of a particular interventive technique. These distinctions between outcomes are proposed to facilitate a more discriminating view of the treatment process and, as a result, contribute to the design of evaluative studies, particularly those investigating the effectiveness of interventive approaches. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).