Evaluation of the Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) as a measure of treatment effectiveness with psychiatric inpatients

Assessment procedures to evaluate inpatient treatment effectiveness can provide information to inform clinical practice. The Computerized Assessment System for Psychotherapy Evaluation and Research (CASPER) represents a standardized approach to assess patients' target problems that combines elements of individualized and nomothetic approaches. Although previous evaluations of CASPER with other patient populations have been encouraging, its use as a measure of change with an inpatient population has not been examined. In this study, 75 psychiatric inpatients completed CASPER and the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale-32 (BASIS-32) at hospital admission and discharge. Results supported the concurrent validity of CASPER as a measure of pre- and posttreatment functioning and suggested that CASPER may provide a sensitive measure of change during inpatient treatment. Findings also supported the notion that patients' ratings of the extent to which their treatment focused on the problems they identified as a high priority were related to their overall treatment satisfaction.