A randomized controlled trial of a gender-focused addiction model versus 12-step facilitation for women veterans.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Substance use disorder (SUD) has increased among women, including military veterans, yet SUD treatment was historically designed for males. This randomized controlled trial compared 12 individual sessions of a gender-focused SUD recovery model, A Woman's Path to Recovery (WPR) to an evidence-based, non-gender-focused SUD model, 12-Step Facilitation (TSF) for 66 women veterans with current severe SUD. METHODS: The primary outcome was substance use; secondary outcomes were associated problems (e.g., psychological); coping skills, and 12-step attendance, with assessment at baseline, end-of-treatment, and 3-month followup. RESULTS: Substance use decreased over time, with no difference between conditions. Decreases occurred from baseline to end-of-treatment and baseline to followup and, for drug severity, also from end-of-treatment to followup. Effect sizes were large for alcohol and medium otherwise. Secondary outcomes were largely consistent with this pattern of improvement. Urinalysis/breathalyzer supported self-report. Treatment attendance was 62% for WPR and 57% for TSF (not significantly different). Twelve-step group attendance, surprisingly, did not increase in either condition. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: WPR provides a useful addition to women's SUD treatment options, with outcomes no different than an established evidence-based model, TSF. Both showed positive impact on substance use and related areas. Our lack of differences based on gender-focus may reflect women veterans being acculturated to a male military environment. Limitations include lack of an untreated control, a sample limited to veterans, and use of a large effect size for power assumptions. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first RCT of a gender-focused approach for women veterans with SUD. (Am J Addict 2018;27:210-216).

Design and analysis of non-pharmacological treatment trials with multiple therapists per patient.

In trials of physical and talking therapies, nesting of patients within therapists has statistical implications analogous to those of cluster randomised trials. Nevertheless, the clustering effect may be more complex, as it interacts with treatment. For some therapies, individual patients may receive care from multiple therapists of the same type, so that patients are no longer strictly nested within therapists, creating a 'multiple-membership' relationship between patients and therapists. This paper considers methods of analysis and sample size estimation for trials with multiple-membership clustering effects. It is motivated by a trial of a psychotherapy for the treatment of adolescent depression with cognitive behavioural therapy. We tested methods and issues in a Monte Carlo simulation study, simulating trials with multiple membership. Results demonstrate satisfactory performance in terms of convergence and give estimates of the intra-cluster correlation coefficient and empirical test size similar to a simple hierarchical design. We derive formulae for sample size and power for multiple-membership trial designs. We then compare estimates of power from this formula with empirical power derived from the simulation study. Finally, we show that we can easily extend formulae for sample size and power to allow consideration of power and sample size for certain types of more complex interventions. These include situations where therapists of different types deliver separate components of the intervention, creating a cross-classified relationship, or where several therapists deliver a group-administered treatment, creating further levels.

Combining group-based exposure therapy with prolonged exposure to treat U.S. Vietnam veterans with PTSD: a case study.

Group-based exposure therapy (GBET) of 16-week duration was developed to treat combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and decreased PTSD symptoms in 3 noncontrolled open trials with low attrition (0%-5%). Group-based exposure therapy has not produced as much PTSD symptom reduction as Prolonged Exposure (PE) within a U.S. Veterans Affairs PTSD treatment program, although PE had more dropouts (20%). This pilot study was of a model that combined key elements of GBET with components of PE in an effort to increase the effectiveness of a group-based treatment while reducing its length and maintaining low attrition. Twice per week, 8 Vietnam combat veterans with PTSD were treated for 12 weeks, with an intervention that included 2 within-group war trauma presentations per participant, 6 PE style individual imaginal exposure (IE) sessions per participant, daily listening to recorded IE sessions, and daily in vivo exposure exercises. All completed treatment and showed Significant reductions on all measures of PTSD with large effect sizes; 7 participants no longer met PTSD criteria on treating clinician administered interviews and a self-report measure at posttreatment. Significant reductions in depression with large effect sizes and moderate reductions in PTSD-related cognitions were also found. Most gains were maintained 6 months posttreatment.

[Multi-family group therapy in Germany]. / Multifamilientherapie in Deutschland.

Multi-family therapy, common group therapy with several families per one index patient, has been gaining popularity recently. This has occasioned an exploratory study of the status of implementation and common factors in all multi-family therapy programs in Germany. In a survey conducted across Germany, all providers of multi-family therapy interventions were requested to give a detailed description of their intervention. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and verbal data were summarized categorically with qualitative content analysis. Of the 25 intervention programs examined 21 are directed at emotionally disturbed children and young people and their families; mainly with disturbances in social behavior. Over 4,000 families per year are treated in multi-family therapy, and five programs were systematically evaluated. MFT is characterized by systematically oriented group therapy methods. Those surveyed traced the effect of this form of intervention back to activating problems in the group, activating resources, changing perspective, learning models, experiencing self-efficacy, and the therapeutic relationship. Systematic studies of multi-family therapy in evaluations and in random controlled study designs are recommended.

Implementation of a multi-family intervention for children with behavioural and emotional problems in a semi-rural population.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the feasibility of implementing a community-based, multi-family group intervention in a semi-rural population in Aranzazu, northern Caldas, Colombia. METHODS: Qualitative study. A convenience sample was taken of 10 families with children with affective and behavioural disorders, previously identified by the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL). The Multifamily Psychoeducational Psychotherapy (MF-PEP) model was adapted to the culture and needs of the families. RESULTS: The contents of the sessions and the topics and experiences that were most significant for the children and their families are described. CONCLUSIONS: The adaptation to the cultural context of the multi-family intervention had a very good acceptability by all participants: caregivers, children and therapists.

Better versus worse family therapy sessions as reflected in clients' alliance-related behavior.

To be responsive to clients' evaluations of the unfolding therapy process, therapists must first accurately "read" client behavior, a particularly challenging task in conjoint family therapy. In this study, the authors compared client behavior in 28 sessions that one family member and the therapist concurred, on the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (W. B. Stiles & J. S. Snow, 1984), were relatively better or worse than their other sessions. Client behavior was rated from videotapes using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA-o; M. L. Friedlander et al., 2006). In contrast to the worse sessions, the better sessions were characterized by significantly greater client Engagement in the Therapeutic Process and Safety within the Therapeutic System. Notably, whereas only the worse sessions had exceptionally poor within-family collaboration, 40% of the better sessions were characterized by mild family conflict. Implications are discussed for building theory on therapist responsiveness and for future research that may benefit practice, training, and supervision.

Combined psychotherapies: searching for an order of operations in a disordered world.

Abstract Recent studies of psychotherapy demonstrate that therapists of different orientations-psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and dialectical behavioral-provide beneficial treatment. Despite the stated adherence of clinicans to one orientation or another, review of session transcripts reveals a substantial overlap in the techniques utilized. Nonspecific or patient factors are the chief determinants of how therapy is conducted in practice. Nevertheless, the psychodynamic orientation offers the most comprehensive approach to therapy because it considers unconscious factors, including transference, enactments, and aspects of the patient's personal relationships. The psychodynamic formulation indicates the basis for determing how psychotherapy might best be conducted for the specific patient.

Current ethical issues in child and adolescent psychotherapy.

Core ethical principles for the conduct of psychotherapy with children and adolescents transcend times, trends, and jurisdictions. Advances in technology, variations in state law, and the evolution of federal law should stimulate consideration of how these ethical principles apply to new situations; however, the guiding compass remains the psychotherapist's obligation to create and protect the integrity of the psychotherapeutic space to provide the child or adolescent the freedom to identify, examine, explore, and hopefully resolve the issues that bring one to treatment. Boundaries, privacy, confidentiality, and the patient's autonomy are components of this space. Together, they reflect a basic respect for the patient central to professional conduct and essential to any effective treatment process.

Cognitive-behavior therapy for depressed cancer patients in a medical care setting.

Major depression is the most common psychiatric disorder among cancer patients and is associated with decreased quality of life, significant deterioration in recreational and physical activities, relationship difficulties, sleep problems, more rapidly progressing cancer symptoms, and more metastasis and pain relative to nondepressed cancer patients. Although some research has explored the utility of psychological interventions with cancer patients, only one study to date has explored the potential benefits of cognitive-behavior therapy among cancer patients with well-diagnosed depression. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study represents an open clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of a brief Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Depression (CBTD) among depressed cancer patients in a medical care setting. Results revealed strong treatment integrity, good patient compliance, excellent patient satisfaction with the CBTD protocol, and significant pre-post treatment gains across a breadth of outcome measures assessing depression, anxiety, quality of life, and medical outcomes. These gains also were associated with strong effect sizes and generally maintained at 3-month follow-up. Behavioral activation interventions, especially when paired with cognitive techniques, may represent a practical medical care treatment that may improve psychological outcomes and quality of life among cancer patients. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed.

The holding/containment function in supervision groups for group therapists.

Group supervision is essential for group therapists, given the difficulty of following and reflecting on the multiplicity of processes in therapy groups and the unique opportunity of exploring them as they resonate and become enacted in the supervision group. More specifically, the paper discusses the critical function of holding/containment in supervision groups. Clinical vignettes are presented to highlight the importance of the holding/containment function and the obstacles that hinder its emergence. The role of the therapist's interpretations as a primary means for ensuring effective holding and containment is examined.

Attachment theory and multiple integrated treatments of borderline patients.

The clinical management of borderline personality disorder (BPD) commonly employs treatments administered in different settings by different clinicians (e.g., individual psychotherapy and drug prescriptions, or individual and group psychotherapies). The general consensus of clinicians on the importance of using different therapists and different settings simultaneously in treating borderline patients is acknowledged by the guidelines for the treatment of BPD provided by the American Psychiatric Association. This widespread type of clinical practice is not supported, however, by a unifying theoretical model explaining the specific effects of a multiple therapist, multi-setting approach in treating BPD.

An evaluation of combined narrative exposure therapy and physiotherapy for comorbid PTSD and chronic pain in torture survivors.

INTRODUCTION: Torture is associated with adverse health consequences, with especially high rates of PTSD, depression and chronic pain. Despite increased awareness of the relationship between pain and posttraumaticsymptoms, and the accompanying need for effective treatment strategies, few studies have examined an integrated treatment of comorbid PTSD and pain. METHODS: In this study, using an A-B case series design with three and six month follow-up, six refugee torture survivors with comorbid PTSD, depression and chronic pain received 20 sessions of Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) and 10 sessions of physiotherapy. Outcome variables included symptoms of PTSD and depression, pain intensity, physical functioning and quality of life. Symptoms of PTSD and pain were also rated after each treatment session. RESULTS: Two patients achieved clinically significant reduction in symptoms of PTSD. Only one patient achieved clinically significant change in depressive symptoms, and two experienced clinically significant reduction in pain intensity. Clinical descriptions of the course of treatment for all patients are provided. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Despite its limitations, the study suggests that some torture survivors who suffer high symptom loads may benefit from a combined treatment of NET and physiotherapy. Appreciating individual differences and how they affect treatment can provide valuable insight and inform clinicians working with torture survivors. Directions for future researchregarding the improvement of rehabilitation strategies of torture survivors are discussed, and highlighted through descriptions from the six therapy cases.

Can we collaborate? Mistakes made when group and individual therapists ignore multiple realities.

Often, group therapists collaborate with individual therapists in conjoint treatment. Many of these patients start in individual therapy and are referred to the group to help facilitate the treatment and address interpersonal and relational issues that either cannot or will not be addressed in the individual work. Although this has the potential to foster incredible growth for patients, it may also cause problems in treatment when collaboration between therapists falls apart. The current paper will examine mistakes made when multiple realities about a patient are ignored during the pregroup screening and preparation, and feedback from group treatment is not integrated into individual therapy. Clinical examples will be used with specific recommendations for combined treatment planning and interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Concurrent psychotherapy and behavior therapy. Treatment of psychoneurotic outpatients.

The feasibility and effects of treating psychoneurotic outpatients with concomitant but separate treatment programs of psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy and behavior therapy was investigated in three cases, utilizing detailed clinical observations and questionnaire responses. The two treatment regimens appeared to have synergistic effects, and anticipated difficulties, such as a split therapeutic alliance, symptom substitution, or preciptious withdrawal from psychotherapy after symptom removal, did not occur. Although there was no evidence of symptom substitution after the behavioral removal of the "target symptom," both clinical observations and questionnaire responses indicated that successful behavior therapy had many unanticipated effects on the patient's nontarget behaviors and cognitions.

An outcome study of group therapy.

Outcome research in a group therapy program was conducted with therapists in training who had little prior experience with group therapy. Significantly greater improvement over an initial three-month period was found for treated patients when compared with control patients on a multivariate combination of five outcome criteria. Some, but not all, of the five separate criteria indicated such a difference. Only slight, nondifferentiating improvement was found for target symptoms. Significantly greater improvement over the three-month period on the multivariate combination was also found for treated patients who had begun therapy during the second year of the program when compared with treated patients who had begun therapy during the first year of the program. Finally, significant improvement over the three-month period on the multivariate combination was found for both treated and control patients.

A controlled evaluation of inpatient family intervention. I. Preliminary results of the six-month follow-up.

Although family intervention is practiced in most psychiatric hospitals, there are no adequately controlled studies of its efficacy. This study was designed to answer, in part, the following question: What is the relative efficacy of hospitalization with family intervention as compared with hospitalization without family intervention for patients with major psychiatric disorders who are in need of hospital treatment and for whom both treatments are judged clinically feasible? This is our first report, presenting preliminary data on six-month follow-up for the first three quarters of the total sample of 144 patients (80 with schizophrenic disorder and 64 with major affective disorder).

Long-term group psychotherapy for children with pervasive developmental disorders: evidence for group development.

This article highlights the clinical progress of three long-term psychotherapy groups for children with pervasive developmental disorders. Unique aspects of working with such children are addressed as well as their movement through the phases of group development. Clinical observations suggested that these groups did in fact pass through observable phases of cohesion, differentiation, and intimacy. Further, these children demonstrated noticeable social development both inside and outside the groups. They identified strongly with their groups, and after the settling-in period, there was remarkably little resistance to participation, especially given the children's tendencies for social avoidance. Vignettes are provided to illustrate both group developmental phases and noteworthy psychological experiences of the clinical process with children who have been diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders.

Principles and practice of conjoint psychoanalytic treatment.

The authors describes the advantages of conjoint analytic treatment, which occurs when two or more analysts treat a patient in different settings: one provides the one-to-one relationship, and the other leads the group experience. The goal of this treatment is to increase the therapeutic possibilities for the patient. The advantages come from the use of multiple settings, transferences, observers, interpreters, and maturational agents. The author illustrates the advantages of the treatment with several case reports. He also points out the value of conjoint treatment for the analysts involved.

The Masters and Johnson treatment program for dissatisfied homosexual men.

Certain individuals who want to change their homosexual preference can be helped by a short-term intensive intervention adapted from the Masters and Johnson model for treating heterosexual disorders. Pretreatment counseling aims at improving the patient's dating, sexual, and intimacy skills; creative problem solving; and stress management. Then for 2 weeks the patient and an opposite-sex partner, living in social isolation, meet daily with a therapy team to address fears and anxieties about intimacy as they arise. The directive psychotherapy format alternates between confrontation of maladaptive belief systems and patterns of relating and support for finding new ways of coping that foster a positive self-image.

Short-term treatment of Sexual problems: interim report.

Of 52 couples requesting treatment for sexual disorders, 16 were treated in accordance with the protocol of Masters and Johnson except that most were seen once a week for 10 or more weeks rather than daily for a briefer period. The treatment results were less successful than those obtained by Masters and Johnson. The authors believe that the successes of this approach nonetheless suggest a need to reevaluate the degree to which sexual problems may be conditioned responses. They also stress the need for specifying the degree of improvement among nonfailures for purposes of comparison and follow-up.