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Standardized Clinical Cutoff/Evidence
Method evidence record

Standardized Clinical Cutoff

The standardized clinical cutoff approach, developed by Jacobson and Truax, judges whether an individual client's change on a standardized measure is both statistically reliable and clinically meaningful. It pairs a Reliable Change Index — which asks whether a pre-to-post change is larger than the measurement error of the instrument — with a cutoff score that marks the boundary between the dysfunctional and functional (normal) populations. A client who moves reliably across that cutoff is counted as recovered, giving practice and research a defensible, individual-level definition of meaningful improvement.

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Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.

Clinical Significance: Standardized Cutoff and Reliable Change Methods
Taxonomic method record · process-pipeline / social-work
  • Jacobson, N. S., & Truax, P. (1991). Clinical significance: A statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59(1), 12–19. · DOI 10.1037/0022-006X.59.1.12
  • Evans, C., Margison, F., & Barkham, M. (1998). The contribution of reliable and clinically significant change methods to evidence-based mental health. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 1(3), 70–72. · DOI 10.1136/ebmh.1.3.70
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Related methods

Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.

Same method familyGoal Attainment Scalingmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Same method familySingle-System Designmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Same method familyStrengths Assessmentmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.

Evidence status

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Bibliographic sources are present. Claim-level evidence review has not been performed.

Sources

2 recorded citations, copied from the method source record.

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