In the next few weeks, one of every four analysts in The American will receive in the mail a survey packet containing instructions and response forms covering up to eight analysands. Special measures have been taken to ensure that the identity of respondents and their patients are totally and permanently concealed.

Over the summer a mailing went out to members describing the project and its importance in developing an accurate picture of psychoanalytic patients. Large group data are essential to the undertaking.

Modeled on a study conducted in the province of Ontario, soon to be published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the survey attempts to document accurately the range of problems treated in psychoanalytic practice and the treatment histories of psychoanalytic patients in the United States. The Ontario study, for instance, showed that 82% of analysands had tried less intensive forms of treatment before resorting to psychoanalysis. Scientific documentation is important in this area because anecdotal claims about psychoanalytic patients are often put forward that have little basis in either clinical experience or empirical research.

Those conducting the survey are encouraged by the excellent response rate in the Canadian study. The selection of one analyst in four is for the sake of statistical relevance accommodated to budgetary constraints. The addition of a computer-assisted diagnostic evaluation study, to be conducted in three cities, will take the Canadian efforts one step further. This validation study has been designed with the help of a number of noted researchers in psychiatry and psychoanalysis and is a state-of-the-art attempt to apply modern research tools to the psychoanalytic field of observation.

The project is being undertaken in the spirit of the newly formed Practice Research Network of the American Psychiatric Association. Members receiving the survey and/or practicing in the cities targeted by the validation study are urged to participate.

Stephen K. Firestein