Do Routine Outcome Monitoring Measures Tell the Same Story? Evaluating Outcome Trajectories and Clinical Outcomes for the Outcome Rating Scale and Outcome Questionnaire - 45.

ObjectiveRoutine outcome monitoring (ROM) of psychotherapy improves client outcomes and reduces premature terminations. Two ROM systems with the most empirical support are the OQ System (Lambert, 2010) and the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS; Duncan, 2012; Miller et al., 2005). We evaluated if the global distress measures, the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS; PCOMS) and the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ-45; OQ System) show similar outcome trajectories and rates of reliable and clinically significant change when completed by the same clients.MethodParticipants (N = 290) were clients from archived data collected in a training clinic for a psychology doctoral program in the western United States, who completed both the ORS and OQ-45 across treatment.ResultsBi-variate correlations between the ORS and OQ-45 were highly correlated at the first session (r = -.73), and for later sessions linear and quadratic estimates were only moderately related (rs = -.31 to -.57). Statistically significantly more clients indicated both reliable change and clinically significant change on the ORS compared to the OQ-45.DiscussionThe results indicate that these measures are correlated but not interchangeable in relation to the conclusions they generate about treatment outcomes. Measurement tools should be carefully considered given the potential for different conclusions to be drawn regarding treatment progress and outcomes.