Nine Evidence-Based Guidelines
I read with interest Gary Bakker’s article promoting evidence-based guidelines for a “good life” (November/December 2019). Yet I was left pondering the nature of the evidence proposed to support the nine suggestions.
In his introduction, Dr. Bakker promotes the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A key feature of RCTs is, of course, randomization, and it is unclear if Dr. Bakker’s evidence is based on him having randomly assigned his clients to one of several possible treatments that have been proposed for their conditions. There are also questions about outcomes measured: one might reasonably be skeptical of an RCT taking as an outcome a self-declaration, “This helped me.”