PS525-2: Examine issues surrounding research methodologies and empirical support for current psychotherapeutic interventions.
In the early 1990’s Division 12 of the American Psychological Association, the Society of Clinical Psychology, established criteria for determining the quality and quantity of existing research supporting a particular treatment for a variety of disorders. In 1995, Division 12 categorized treatment meeting these criteria as either well-established or probably efficacious with both sets of criteria requiring replicated demonstrations of efficacy through high quality trials or case series.
For the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, three trauma-focused treatments and one non-trauma focused treatment are currently deemed as well-established. In addition, another non-trauma focused treatment is presently identified as probably efficacious. One other treatment is considered potentially harmful, and is without research support.
1. Using this link, www.psychologicaltreatments.org, navigate to the APA Division 12 website.
2. First, by perusing the website, briefly state the difference between well-established and probably efficacious.
3. Then, under the Disorders tab, find PTSD and identify both the well-established treatments and the treatment regarded as probably efficacious. Provide a brief description of each treatment (either from the description provided on the website or from another source).
4. Next, locate a recent (no older than five years) peer-reviewed article that both describes a treatment’s protocol and examines its efficacy for each of the five treatments (do not use the references provided on the Division website as they are generally older than five years). You may use articles that compare two or more of the treatments but you must obtain a total of five articles.
5. Now, briefly provide a summary of the specific treatment provided (e.g. number of sessions, the content of the sessions, etc.) as well as a summary of the methodology of the study contained in each article including the sample, sample size, assessment measures used and the results of the study. Do this for all five articles.
6. Based on your analysis of all five treatments, indicate which treatment you yourself would be most likely to use when treating someone suffering from PTSD. In your response, include the answers to these questions:
• Based on what you have learned, how important do you think it is to process the actual trauma with the client (as opposed to teaching the client current adaptive responses/coping tools)? Provide your rationale.
• Under what circumstances would you consider using a treatment that is not considered to be empirically validated (well-established or probably efficacious)?
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