Practice Involves More Than Treatment: How Can Evidence-Based Assessment Catch Up to Evidence-Based Treatment?

Given the excellent work being conducted in the area of evidence-based treatments (EBTs), it is important to consider whether other forms of evidence-based practice are receiving concomitant attention. While significant progress has been made in the last five years to generate reviews of evidence-based assessment (EBA) practices, this work lags behind efforts to identify EBTs. This commentary describes available data on assessment practices in clinical care settings, discusses the importance of and current status of EBA, and considers how the next generation of EBA reviews might move beyond consideration of psychometric properties to the inclusion of "effectiveness" parameters.