What do you think?
Rate this book
Psychotherapy Research: Where Are We and Where Should We Go?
Book by Williams, Janet B. W.
424 pages, Hardcover
First published February 29, 1984
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 31, 2024
A 1983 SUMMATION ON THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC TREATMENT
This book is the "Proceedings of the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychopathological Association, New York City, March 3-5, 1983." The Preface states, "This book reflects the excitement and sense of urgency that now characterize the field of psychotherapy research. The excitement results from recent methodological advances in the standardization of psychotherapy techniques and in the diagnostic characterization of patient samples, and from the findings of controlled studies that demonstrate the efficacy of certain forms of psychotherapy for certain patient groups. The sense of urgency stems from pressure from government and private reimbursement agencies for evidence of the efficacy of the psychotherapies whose increasing costs they are asked to pay." (Pg. vii)
One paper notes, "The past decade has seen remarkable progression estabishing the reliability of the diagnosis of schizophrenia, through the clinical application of DSM-III... but even the very best reliability has failed to bring validity to the diagnosis. To date, no single, multiple, or cluster of biologic, psychophysiologic, psychologic, or social variables can be found in all schizophrenics." (Pg. 70)
Another states, "In the 1979 review, four studies tested psychotherapy in combination with drugs and all found the combination more effective than either treatment alone. Since then, those findings have been replicated... [and] found that cognitive therapy in combination with doctor's choice of tricyclic was superior to either treatment alone, but only among psychiatric outpatients, not among patients attending general practice." (Pg. 98)
Another one summarizes, "There was rather clear evidence that therapy in general 'works' and that the improvement of patients in therapy was not entirely due either to 'spontaneous recovery' or to the placebo effect of the nonspecific aspects of therapy such as arousal of hope, expectation of help and an initial cathatric interview, which were also present for the control or minimal-treatment patients. Behavior therapy was at least as effective and possibly more so than psychotherapy with the sort of moderately severe neuroses and personality disorders that are typical of clinical populations. This should help to dispel the impression that behavior therapy is useful only with phobias and 'restricted' unitary problems. It is a 'generally useful treatment,' and symptom substitution did not occur...
"It is clear that behavior therapists and psychotherapists provided distinctive treatments. We were impressed with the similarity among therapists in each group... The patient-therapist relationship appeared to be a crucial factor in the success of psychotherapy and important in behavior therapy too... Successful patients in both therapies rated the personal interaction with the therapist as the single most important part of their treatment." (Pg. 200-201)
A presenter observed, "This controversy over the efficacy of psychotherapy has existed for at least the past 30 years and, despite a marked increase in research on psychotherapy, appears to have intensified in recent years. I believe that at least three factors are responsible for this latter occurrence: (1) the matter of third-party payments; (2) the swing from a psychoanalytic to a more biological emphasis in psychiatry; and (3) criticisms of existing research on outcome by behaviorists. The issue, however, is an important one and deserves an adequate analysis and response." (Pg. 295)
He added, "I believe it is fair to say that psychotherapy produces modestly positive results with certain types of cases, but there is tremendous variability among studies, including the type of control groups used." (Pg. 300)
Another stated, "I do not see questions raised in the field about the effectiveness of drug therapy nearly so often or so critically as they are with psychotherapy. However, there is not good evidence that drug therapy is more effective than psychotherapy... if drug therapy and psychotherapy are each cost-effective when used alone, then their combination would be even more cost-effective (since the effects are additive, but various costs of each are duplicated when implemented separately)." (Pg. 362-363)
This is an excellent volume, and a worthy addition to 'The Benefits of Psychotherapy.'
This book is the "Proceedings of the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychopathological Association, New York City, March 3-5, 1983." The Preface states, "This book reflects the excitement and sense of urgency that now characterize the field of psychotherapy research. The excitement results from recent methodological advances in the standardization of psychotherapy techniques and in the diagnostic characterization of patient samples, and from the findings of controlled studies that demonstrate the efficacy of certain forms of psychotherapy for certain patient groups. The sense of urgency stems from pressure from government and private reimbursement agencies for evidence of the efficacy of the psychotherapies whose increasing costs they are asked to pay." (Pg. vii)
One paper notes, "The past decade has seen remarkable progression estabishing the reliability of the diagnosis of schizophrenia, through the clinical application of DSM-III... but even the very best reliability has failed to bring validity to the diagnosis. To date, no single, multiple, or cluster of biologic, psychophysiologic, psychologic, or social variables can be found in all schizophrenics." (Pg. 70)
Another states, "In the 1979 review, four studies tested psychotherapy in combination with drugs and all found the combination more effective than either treatment alone. Since then, those findings have been replicated... [and] found that cognitive therapy in combination with doctor's choice of tricyclic was superior to either treatment alone, but only among psychiatric outpatients, not among patients attending general practice." (Pg. 98)
Another one summarizes, "There was rather clear evidence that therapy in general 'works' and that the improvement of patients in therapy was not entirely due either to 'spontaneous recovery' or to the placebo effect of the nonspecific aspects of therapy such as arousal of hope, expectation of help and an initial cathatric interview, which were also present for the control or minimal-treatment patients. Behavior therapy was at least as effective and possibly more so than psychotherapy with the sort of moderately severe neuroses and personality disorders that are typical of clinical populations. This should help to dispel the impression that behavior therapy is useful only with phobias and 'restricted' unitary problems. It is a 'generally useful treatment,' and symptom substitution did not occur...
"It is clear that behavior therapists and psychotherapists provided distinctive treatments. We were impressed with the similarity among therapists in each group... The patient-therapist relationship appeared to be a crucial factor in the success of psychotherapy and important in behavior therapy too... Successful patients in both therapies rated the personal interaction with the therapist as the single most important part of their treatment." (Pg. 200-201)
A presenter observed, "This controversy over the efficacy of psychotherapy has existed for at least the past 30 years and, despite a marked increase in research on psychotherapy, appears to have intensified in recent years. I believe that at least three factors are responsible for this latter occurrence: (1) the matter of third-party payments; (2) the swing from a psychoanalytic to a more biological emphasis in psychiatry; and (3) criticisms of existing research on outcome by behaviorists. The issue, however, is an important one and deserves an adequate analysis and response." (Pg. 295)
He added, "I believe it is fair to say that psychotherapy produces modestly positive results with certain types of cases, but there is tremendous variability among studies, including the type of control groups used." (Pg. 300)
Another stated, "I do not see questions raised in the field about the effectiveness of drug therapy nearly so often or so critically as they are with psychotherapy. However, there is not good evidence that drug therapy is more effective than psychotherapy... if drug therapy and psychotherapy are each cost-effective when used alone, then their combination would be even more cost-effective (since the effects are additive, but various costs of each are duplicated when implemented separately)." (Pg. 362-363)
This is an excellent volume, and a worthy addition to 'The Benefits of Psychotherapy.'
Displaying 1 of 1 review