The Notion of Clinically Significant Change

A definition of clinically significant change that contains three dimensions is proposed that can be shown to result from treatment rather than from maturation or other uncontrolled factors, can be show to be real rather than random, and can be shows to be important rather than trivial.

Abstract

Determining if treatment results in a significant change in a client’s communication ability can be a difficult task for clinicians. We addressed this issue by proposing a definition of clinically significant change that contains three dimensions. A clinically significant change is a change in client performance that (a) can be shown to result from treatment rather than from maturation or other uncontrolled factors, (b) can be shown to be real rather than random, and (c) can be shown to be important rather than trivial. Additionally, some methods are described for evaluating the clinical significance of improvements in client performance during treatment.