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The effectiveness of strength-based, solution-focused brief therapy in medical settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

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Abstract

This meta-analysis synthesized randomized controlled trials of solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) in medical settings for patients’ health-related psychosocial (e.g., depression, psychosocial adjustment to illness), behavioral (e.g., physical activity, nutrition score), and functional health (e.g., BMI, individual strength) outcomes. Medical setting is defined in this study as any healthcare setting that primarily focuses on patients’ physical wellbeing. A comprehensive search strategy across five electronic databases, four academic journals, three professional websites, and reference lists of included articles resulted in a final sample of nine studies for meta-analytic synthesis. Combining outcomes indicated an overall significant effect of SFBT for health-related psychosocial outcomes (d = 0.34, p < .05.) and a nearly significant outcome for health-related behavioral outcomes (d = 0.28, p = .06), but not for functional health outcomes. Results indicated SFBT being an effective intervention for psychosocial outcomes and a promising approach for behavioral outcomes in medical settings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Anao Zhang, Cynthia Franklin, Jennifer Currin-McCulloch & Sunyoung Park

  2. University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Johnny Kim

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  1. Anao Zhang
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  2. Cynthia Franklin
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  3. Jennifer Currin-McCulloch
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Correspondence to Anao Zhang.

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Anao Zhang, Cynthia Franklin, Jennifer Currin-McCulloch, Sunyoung Park, and Johnny Kim declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and animal rights and Informed consent

This paper was a systematic review and meta-analysis and did not involve any human and/or animal subject during the study. Thus, its ethics approval did not apply.

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Zhang, A., Franklin, C., Currin-McCulloch, J. et al. The effectiveness of strength-based, solution-focused brief therapy in medical settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Behav Med 41, 139–151 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-017-9888-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-017-9888-1

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