As we have seen, short-term psychotherapy now comes in at least four different forms, and brain imaging may provide a scientific means of distinguishing among them. If so, it may reveal that all effective psychotherapies work through the same anatomical and molecular mechanisms. Alternatively, and more likely, imaging may show that psychotherapies achieve their goals through distinctly different mechanisms in the brain. Psychotherapies are also likely to have adverse side effects, as drugs do. Empirical testing of psychotherapies could help us maximize the safety and effectiveness of these
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