Quantifying Care, Qualifying Experiences: A Systematic Review of Measurement-Based Care in Psychiatry from Patient and Provider Perspectives

Objective: This systematic review synthesizes clinician and patient perspectives on the benefits and drawbacks of measurement-based care (MBC) in psychiatry. Study Selection and Analysis: We searched Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBM Reviews, APA PsychINFO, and CINAHL databases from inception to January 2024. After screening 1643 titles and abstracts, 47 full papers were reviewed, and 23 studies were ultimately included. Quality assessment was conducted using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool, and key patterns were extracted using thematic analysis. Findings: The review reflects opinions of 746 patients and 2804 clinicians across various settings. Patients valued MBC for enhancing communication, self-awareness, and reducing stigma. However, they expressed concerns about the adequacy of measures in reflecting their clinical state and uncertainty about how responses influence treatment decisions. Clinicians appreciated MBC for improving patient involvement, tracking treatment response, and enhancing communication efficiency. Concerns included inadequate capture of clinical complexity, potential reporting biases, time constraints, insufficient training, and concerns with respect to data usage and privacy. Conclusions: While patients and clinicians recognize significant benefits, including enhanced communication, improved insight, and more structured clinical decision-making, they also identify important limitations. These include concerns about the adequacy of scales to capture complex clinical presentations, potential impacts on the therapeutic alliance, and increased administrative burden. Moving forward, successful integration of MBC into routine care will require addressing these challenges through improved clinician training, clear guidelines for interpretation, greater transparency with respect to how data will be used, and more seamless integration with existing clinical workflows.