Keynote ISSPD Congress 2023

Make therapy simple again: how can we improve treatment as usual for PD? (19339)

Joost Hutsebaut 1
  1. Tilburg University, Bergen Op Zoom, NA, Netherlands

This presentation would be slightly more provocative by re-questioning the evidence we have in the field for our ‘evidence-based treatments’. I would argue that the evidence is rather conditional. This not only points to the role of common factors, but also to the role of context, e.g. the organizational culture in which treatment is delivered, the team culture, the available expertise within the team/organization etc. Furthermore, I would re-question the negative connotation of ‘treatment as usual’ and I would argue that there is much variation in treatment as usual, which also points the way to how we could improve treatment as usual. I would ultimately argue that although we do need our evidence-based treatments, from a patient perspective the upgrade of treatment as usual is much more important, and from a professional perspective, this upgrade should remain as simple as possible.