Guest article: Seven Alternatives to Evidence-Based Practice

by Brian Thompson, Ph.D.

At a recent conference, psychologist Dr. G. Terence Wilson, professor at Rutgers University, referenced an amusing article about evidence-based practice during a presentation on the topic. Reprinted in The Oncologist, the article refers to the practice of medicine but is easily applicable to psychotherapy research, as Dr. Wilson observed.

Entitled, “Seven Alternatives to Evidence-Based Practice,” the article humorously captures ways in which different treatments are utilized or marketed in the absence of any real scientific evidence of their effectiveness. Examples are:

•    Eminence-Based (e.g., “the more senior the colleague, the less importance he or she placed on the need for anything as mundane as evidence”)

•    Vehemence-Based (e.g., "substitution of volume for evidence")

•    Eloquence-Based (e.g., “Sartorial elegance and verbal eloquence are powerful substitutes for evidence”

You can download a PDF of the short article from here.

See full citation:

Isaacs, D., & Fitzgerald, D. (2001). Seven alternatives to evidence-based medicine. The Oncologist, 6(4), 390.

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Brian Thompson is finishing up his postdoc residency at Portland Psychotherapy, and he blogs about mindfulness research on Scientific Mindfulness.