Resumen de evidencia para políticas: intervenciones no farmacológicas para abordar las necesidades de adolescentes con Transtorno del Espectro Autista (TEA) / Summary of evidence for policies: non-pharmacological interventions to address the needs of adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

INTRODUCCIÓN: El Departamento de Salud Mental de la División de Prevención y Control de Enfermedades de la Subsecretaría de Salud Pública solicitó a la Unidad de Política de Salud Informadas por Evidencia del Departamento de Evaluaciones de Tecnología Sanitarias y Salud Basada en Evidencia de la División de Planificación Sanitaria el desarrollo de un Resumen de Evidencia para Políticas sobre el problema intervenciones no farmacológicas para abordar las necesidades de adolescentes con Trastorno del Espectro Autista (TEA). Para la elaboración de este informe, el equipo elaborador definió el método con el que se iba a identificar y seleccionar las potenciales opciones de solución. Una vez realizada la selección de las seis opciones, se realizó una búsqueda sistemática y síntesis de evidencia del efecto sobre los desenlaces de interés de cada una, utilizando la metodología GRADE. Luego, se hizo una búsqueda no sistemática de evidencia o antecedentes para analizar las consideraciones implementabilidad de cada opción. OPCIÓN 1: Terapia cognitivo conductual - Con moderada certeza de la evidencia, se observa que la terapia cognitivo conductual en adolescentes con TEA mejora levemente las habilidades de la vida diaria en comparación con no realizar la intervención. Con baja certeza de la evidencia, se observa que la terapia cognitivo conductual mejora levemente el funcionamiento social en adolescentes con TEA, en comparación con no recibir la intervención. Con muy baja certeza de la evidencia, se observa que la terapia cognitiva conductual en adolescentes con TEA podría mejorar la calidad de vida y el bienestar, y mejorar levemente la regulación emocional, síntomas depresivos, síntomas ansiosos, y la auto-determinación. La evidencia es limitada y se requieren más estudios para confirmar este resultado. Las distintas formas de terapia cognitivo conductual suelen ser manualizadas y requieren formación del profesional y logística en escuelas, centros de salud o donde se aplique. Existen además otras consideraciones de implementabilidad que se deben ajustar al contexto local. OPCIÓN 2: Musicoterapia: Con baja certeza de la evidencia, se observa que la musicoterapia en adolescentes con TEA mejora levemente la calidad de vida y regulación emocional, en comparación con no recibir la intervención. Con muy baja certeza de la evidencia, se observa que la musicoterapia en adolescentes con TEA podría mejorar síntomas depresivos y podría mejorar levemente la funcionalidad social, y habilidades de la vida diaria. La evidencia es limitada y se requieren más estudios para confirmar este resultado. OPCIÓN 3: Videomodelamiento No es posible establecer el efecto del videomodelamiento en adolescentes con TEA sobre la regulación emocional, funcionamiento social, habilidades de la vida diaria, y auto-determinación en comparación con no realizar la intervención. No se encontraron estudios que evaluaran los desenlaces de regulación emocional, síntomas depresivos, síntomas ansiosos, y calidad de vida y bienestar. Para esta intervención, los modelos podían ser pares, adultos o los mismos participantes, los facilitadores de la intervención fueron profesores, prestadores de salud o padres/cuidadores. Además, existen otras consideraciones de implementabilidad que se deben ajustar al contexto local. OPCIÓN 4: Terapia basada en mindfulness Con muy baja certeza de la evidencia, se observa que la terapia basada en mindfulness en adolescentes con TEA comparación con control podría mejorar levemente la regulación emocional, los síntomas depresivos, síntomas ansiosos, funcionamiento social, calidad de vida y bienestar, habilidades de la vida diaria y auto-determinación. La evidencia es limitada y se requieren más estudios para confirmar este resultado. Su aplicabilidad depende de la guía por parte de profesionales de salud formados en mindfulness o instructores (no profesionales de salud); en setting ambulatorio o colegios. La mayoría se implementó en formato grupal y ninguna incluía a cuidadores o familiares. Además, existen otras consideraciones de implementabilidad que se deben ajustar al contexto local. OPCIÓN 5: Terapia mediada por pares: Con baja certeza de la evidencia, se observa que el uso de intervención mediada por pares en adolescentes con TEA podría mejorar levemente la regulación emocional, y los síntomas ansiosos en comparación con no realizar la intervención. No es posible establecer el efecto de la intervención mediada por pares en adolescentes con TEA sobre el funcionamiento social y auto-determinación, en comparación con no realizar la intervención. No se encontraron estudios que evaluaran síntomas depresivos, calidad de vida y bienestar, y habilidades de la vida diaria. La evidencia que sintetizamos incluyó a las intervenciones mediadas por pares considerando PEERS, PRT, entre otros modelos estructurados o manualizados de marca registrada, cuya aplicabilidad depende de que sean supervisadas por profesores o facilitadores entrenados. Además, existen otras consideraciones de implementabilidad que se deben ajustar al contexto local. OPCIÓN 6: Terapia de integración sensorial: Con certeza baja de la evidencia, se observa que la terapia de integración sensorial comparada en adolescentes con TEA no tiene un efecto sobre regulación emocional, funcionamiento social, y calidad de vida y bienestar. No es posible establecer el efecto de la terapia de integración sensorial en adolescentes con TEA sobre habilidades de la vida diaria y auto-determinación en comparación con control por falta de información en los estudios. No se encontraron estudios que evaluaran síntomas depresivos y síntomas ansiosos. La evidencia que sintetizamos incluyó entre las terapias de integración sensorial los modelos de Ayres, entre otros modelos estructurados o manualizados. La intervención fue aplicada por profesionales de salud entrenados, en sesiones periódicas y en setting escolar, clínico-hospitalario o clínico ambulatorio. Además, existen otras consideraciones de implementabilidad que se deben ajustar al contexto local.

Advancing successful implementation of task-shifted mental health care in low-resource settings (BASIC): protocol for a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: The mental health treatment gap-the difference between those with mental health need and those who receive treatment-is high in low- and middle-income countries. Task-shifting has been used to address the shortage of mental health professionals, with a growing body of research demonstrating the effectiveness of mental health interventions delivered through task-shifting. However, very little research has focused on how to embed, support, and sustain task-shifting in government-funded systems with potential for scale up. The goal of the Building and Sustaining Interventions for Children (BASIC) study is to examine implementation policies and practices that predict adoption, fidelity, and sustainment of a mental health intervention in the education sector via teacher delivery and the health sector via community health volunteer delivery. METHODS: BASIC is a Hybrid Type II Implementation-Effectiveness trial. The study design is a stepped wedge, cluster randomized trial involving 7 sequences of 40 schools and 40 communities surrounding the schools. Enrollment consists of 120 teachers, 120 community health volunteers, up to 80 site leaders, and up to 1280 youth and one of their primary guardians. The evidence-based mental health intervention is a locally adapted version of Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, called Pamoja Tunaweza. Lay counselors are trained and supervised in Pamoja Tunaweza by local trainers who are experienced in delivering the intervention and who participated in a Train-the-Trainer model of skills transfer. After the first sequence completes implementation, in-depth interviews are conducted with initial implementing sites' counselors and leaders. Findings are used to inform delivery of implementation facilitation for subsequent sequences' sites. We use a mixed methods approach including qualitative comparative analysis to identify necessary and sufficient implementation policies and practices that predict 3 implementation outcomes of interest: adoption, fidelity, and sustainment. We also examine child mental health outcomes and cost of the intervention in both the education and health sectors. DISCUSSION: The BASIC study will provide knowledge about how implementation of task-shifted mental health care can be supported in government systems that already serve children and adolescents. Knowledge about implementation policies and practices from BASIC can advance the science of implementation in low-resource contexts. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03243396. Registered 9th August 2017, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03243396.

The 2018 UK NHS Digital annual report on the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme: a brief commentary.

This commentary examines publicly available information on 2017-2018 outcomes in the UK government's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, a National Health Service (NHS) primary care mental health programme in England. In that year there were 1.4 million referrals into IAPT and over 500,000 people completed a course of treatment. The IAPT database collects routine session-by-session outcome monitoring data for this population, including outcomes for depression and anxiety in a stepped care model which includes a range of psychological therapies, among them Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Person-centred Experiential Therapy, known in the IAPT programme as Counselling for Depression (CfD).In 2017-18, 32% of all referrals were for anxiety and stress disorders, 26% for depression, and 35% were unspecified. The definition of treatment completion is receipt of 2 sessions or more and on this basis 60% of all referrals in 2017-18 did not complete treatment, predominantly because they failed to attend the initial appointment, or ended after only one session. Four years of data on outcomes for CBT and CfD suggests these therapies are broadly comparable in terms of both recovery rate and average number of sessions, though the number of referrals to each therapy varied widely. Data on treatment choice and satisfaction was favourable but there were issues with low return rates and invalid data. Information on outcomes for ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and religion, as well as a measure of local economic deprivation, indicate lower outcomes for a number of patient groups. Data on employment status outcomes suggest little overall change, including for the category of those on benefits payments.The data published alongside the annual IAPT reports mean there is an increasing amount of information in the public domain about IAPT performance, but it is time consuming to extract and evaluate. This report highlights a number of points of concern which suggest the need for improvement on multiple axes. We suggest that improved researcher access to the huge IAPT dataset can allow for more detailed evaluations of IAPT that can inform policy/decision-making to improve outcomes for clients.

The Effect of Contextual Risk Factors on the Effectiveness of Brief Personality-Targeted Interventions for Adolescent Alcohol Use and Misuse: A Cluster-Randomized Trial.

BACKGROUND: A range of school-based prevention programs has been developed and used to prevent, delay, or reduce alcohol use among adolescents. Most of these programs have been evaluated at the community-level impact. However, the effect of contextual risk factors has rarely been considered in the evaluation of these programs. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential moderating effects of 2 important contextual risk factors (i.e., socioeconomic status [SES] and peer victimization) on the effectiveness of the school-based personality-targeted interventions (Preventure program) in reducing adolescent alcohol use over a 2-year period using a cluster-randomized trial. METHODS: High-risk adolescents were identified using personality scores on the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale and randomized to intervention and control groups. Two 90-minute cognitive behavioral therapy-based group sessions targeted 1 of 4 personality risk profiles: Anxiety Sensitivity, Hopelessness, Impulsivity, or Sensation Seeking. Multilevel linear modeling of alcohol use, binge drinking, and drinking-related harm was conducted to assess the moderating effect of baseline peer victimization and SES. RESULTS: Results indicated that the Preventure program was equally beneficial to all adolescents, regardless of SES and victimization history, in terms of their alcohol outcomes and related harm. Receiving the intervention was additionally beneficial for adolescents reporting peer victimization regarding their alcohol-related harm compared to nonvictimized youth (ß = -0.29, SE = 0.11, p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that the content of personality-targeted interventions is beneficial for all high-risk youth regardless of their SES or experience of peer victimization. The current study suggests that using targeted approaches, such as targeting underlying personality risk factors, may be the most appropriate substance use prevention strategy for high-risk youth, as it is beneficial for all high-risk youth regardless of their contextual risk factors.

Participatory Technology Development to Enhance Community Resilience.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of a novel, partnered technology development process to co-create mobile health applications (apps) addressing community health priorities, using psychoeducation of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles for enhancing resilience as an example. Design: Stakeholder engagement, workgroups, pilot feasibility study using mixed methods during October 2013 through January 2016 over three phases: 1) defining the vision of the project and increasing technical capacity, 2) co-development and pilot testing of the app, and 3) planning for sustainability. Setting: An academic-community partnership in South Los Angeles, California. Participants: Eight stakeholders; 30 pilot participants from the community. Main Outcome Measures: Qualitative analysis of audio-recordings of the app development process and stakeholder interviews, surveys of stakeholders' perception of the development process, app use data, and feedback from pilot participants. Results: The participatory technology development process resulted in creation and pilot-testing of a resiliency-focused text messaging app. Of the 1,107 messages sent, 23 out of 30 (77%) app users responded to explore interactive content. Stakeholders reported increased perceived competency in creating mobile apps and that the process fostered a culture of co-leadership. There was also sustained engagement in mobile app development by stakeholders beyond the initial project period. Conclusions: This is the first study, to our knowledge, to demonstrate the feasibility of participatory technology development, an approach involving direct participation in the development, tailoring and maintenance of a mobile app by a broad set of stakeholders with high representation from racial/ethnic minorities from an under-resourced community. Participatory technology development is a promising approach for creating sustainable, relevant and engaging health technologies across different technological, clinical and community settings.

What IAPT CBT High-Intensity Trainees Do After Training.

BACKGROUND: The UK Department of Health Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative set out to train a large number of therapists in cognitive behaviour therapies (CBT) for depression and anxiety disorders. Little is currently known about the retention of IAPT CBT trainees, or the use of CBT skills acquired on the course in the workplace after training has finished. AIMS: This study set out to conduct a follow-up survey of past CBT trainees on the IAPT High Intensity CBT Course at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London (KCL), one of the largest IAPT High Intensity courses in the UK. METHOD: Past trainees (n = 212) across 6 cohorts (2008-2014 intakes) were contacted and invited to participate in a follow-up survey. A response rate of 92.5% (n = 196) was achieved. RESULTS: The vast majority of IAPT trainees continue to work in IAPT services posttraining (79%) and to practise CBT as their main therapy modality (94%); 61% have become CBT supervisors. A minority (23%) have progressed to other senior roles in the services. Shortcomings are reported in the use of out-of-office CBT interventions, the use of disorder-specific outcome measures and therapy recordings to inform therapy and supervision. CONCLUSIONS: Past trainees stay working in IAPT services and continue to use CBT methods taught on the course. Some NICE recommended treatment procedures that are likely to facilitate patients' recovery are not being routinely implemented across IAPT services. The results have implications for the continued roll out of the IAPT programme, and other future large scale training initiatives.

Ten-Year Trends In Treatment Services For Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Enrolled In Medicaid.

Closing the gap between evidence-based clinical practice standards and their inclusion in routine practice continues to be a major goal of health policy reforms. This gap is especially large for the care of children with psychiatric disorders-especially those from low-income families, many of whom are insured through Medicaid. To address this gap, we analyzed trends over ten years (2001-10) from Medicaid claims data describing changes over time in medication, psychotherapy, and combined treatment services for children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Over this time, more children received treatments that conformed to practice standards, including the use of combination treatments of medication and psychotherapy. Rates of combined treatment increased by 74 percent, rates of psychotherapy alone more than doubled, and rates of medication alone decreased by 18 percent. Rates of diagnoses without any reimbursed treatment decreased by 39 percent. These trends suggest increasing adherence to clinical practice standards by providers serving children with ADHD in the Medicaid population, although the quality of those services is unknown.

Advances in evidence-based intervention and assessment practices for youth with an autism spectrum disorder.

This special series is designed to highlight recent advances in the evidence-based treatment and assessment of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The seven articles for this special series include novel applications of cognitive-behavioral therapy to address core aspects of ASD, empirical research that provides understanding of ways to assess and intervene with individuals with ASD, and studies that focus on the implementation of evidence-based interventions for youth with ASD. In this introductory paper, we provide an overview of the current state of the field related to the treatment and assessment of youth with ASD and discuss related themes addressed across the papers in the series. We conclude with a brief description of each of the seven papers in the series.

Benchmarking routine psychological services: a discussion of challenges and methods.

BACKGROUND: Policy developments in recent years have led to important changes in the level of access to evidence-based psychological treatments. Several methods have been used to investigate the effectiveness of these treatments in routine care, with different approaches to outcome definition and data analysis. AIMS: To present a review of challenges and methods for the evaluation of evidence-based treatments delivered in routine mental healthcare. This is followed by a case example of a benchmarking method applied in primary care. METHOD: High, average and poor performance benchmarks were calculated through a meta-analysis of published data from services working under the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) Programme in England. Pre-post treatment effect sizes (ES) and confidence intervals were estimated to illustrate a benchmarking method enabling services to evaluate routine clinical outcomes. RESULTS: High, average and poor performance ES for routine IAPT services were estimated to be 0.91, 0.73 and 0.46 for depression (using PHQ-9) and 1.02, 0.78 and 0.52 for anxiety (using GAD-7). Data from one specific IAPT service exemplify how to evaluate and contextualize routine clinical performance against these benchmarks. CONCLUSIONS: The main contribution of this report is to summarize key recommendations for the selection of an adequate set of psychometric measures, the operational definition of outcomes, and the statistical evaluation of clinical performance. A benchmarking method is also presented, which may enable a robust evaluation of clinical performance against national benchmarks. Some limitations concerned significant heterogeneity among data sources, and wide variations in ES and data completeness.

Psychoanalysis and research: some reflections and opinions.

The author argues that existing research on the outcome of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic therapies is sufficient to claim a solid basis in scientific evidence for psychodynamically oriented clinical work. She explores sociocultural trends that increase the probability that analytic therapists and academic researchers will misunderstand one another, and she discusses the problematic status of the randomized controlled trial as the "gold standard" of research. She urges readers to educate themselves about what the outcome research actually shows, to support empirical investigations of psychoanalytic theories and practice, to make alliances with therapists of other orientations, and to try to contribute to changing the terms in which policymakers and the public frame their understanding of mental health and mental suffering.

[Internet based cognitive behavioral interventions: state of the art and implementation possibilities in rehabilitation]. / Internetbasierte kognitiv-behaviorale Behandlungs-ansätze: State of the Art und Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der Rehabilitation.

Internet-based health interventions (IHIs) provide a way to treat people via the Internet. The spectrum is wide, comprising interventions for mental disorders and somatic diseases as well as health and risk behavior change interventions. Numerous international studies have demonstrated the efficacy of IHIs for the aforementioned areas. Through the resource-saving applications IHIs are cost-efficient, not least suggesting their usefulness for medical rehabilitation. The present overview starts with a description of IHIs with a differentiation of technical-formal and thematic aspects. In doing so, the focus lies primarily on cognitive-behavioral treatment approaches, as the best scientifically investigated IHIs to date. An overview of the empirical evidence of IHIs is given, followed by a discussion of the implementation possibilities in medical rehabilitation.

The efficacy of Web-based cognitive behavioral interventions for chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

UNLABELLED: Our objective was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify the efficacy of web-based cognitive behavioral interventions for the treatment of patients with chronic pain. MEDLINE and other databases were searched as data sources. Reference lists were examined for other relevant articles. We included 11 studies that evaluated the effects of web-based interventions on chronic pain using specific scales of pain. The pooled effect size (standardized mean difference between intervention versus waiting-list group means) from a random effects model was .285 (95% confidence interval: .145-.424), favoring the web-based intervention compared with the waiting-list group, although the effect was small. In addition, these results were not driven by any particular study, as shown by sensitivity analysis. Results from funnel plot argue against publication bias. Finally, the average dropout rate was 26.6%. In our meta-analysis, we demonstrate a small effect of web-based interventions, when using pain scale as the main outcome. Despite the minor effects and high dropout rates, the decreased costs and minor risk of adverse effects compared with pharmacological treatments support additional studies in chronic pain patients using web-based interventions. Further studies will be important to confirm the effects and determine the best responders to this intervention. PERSPECTIVE: Our findings suggest that web-based interventions for chronic pain result in small pain reductions in the intervention group compared with waiting-list control groups. These results advance the field of web-based cognitive behavioral interventions as a potential therapeutic tool for chronic pain and can potentially help clinicians and patients with chronic pain by decreasing treatment costs and side effects.

Interventions to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint in inpatient psychiatric settings: what we know so far a review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION: In recent times, much attention has been focused on the reduction of seclusion and restraint in psychiatric settings. This paper analyzes evidence available from evaluations of single seclusion and/or restraint reduction programmes. A total of 29 papers were included in the review. RESULTS: Seven key strategy types emerged from the analysis: (i) policy change/leadership; (ii) external review/debriefing; (iii) data use; (iv) training; (v) consumer/family involvement; (vi) increase in staff ratio/crisis response teams; and (vii) programme elements/changes. Outcomes indicate that a range of reduction programmes are successful in reducing the frequency and duration of seclusion and restraint use, while at the same time maintaining a safe environment. CONCLUSION: The development of new seclusion and restraint reduction programmes should include strong leadership from local management; external seclusion and restraint review committees or post-incident debriefing and analysis; broad-based staff training and programme changes at a local level. Behavioural and cognitive-behavioural programmes appear to be very useful in child and adolescent services. Further systematic research should be conducted to more fully understand which elements of successful programmes are the most powerful in reducing incidents of seclusion and restraint.

Psychosocial treatments for bipolar disorder: cost-effectiveness, mediating mechanisms, and future directions.

OBJECTIVES: Randomized trials of adjunctive psychotherapy for bipolar disorder are reviewed, in tandem with discussion of cost-effectiveness, mediating mechanisms, and moderators of effects. METHODS: Systematic searches of the MEDLINE and PSYCHLIT databases yielded 19 randomized controlled trials of individual family and group therapies. Outcome variables included time to recovery, relapse or recurrence, symptom severity, medication adherence, and psychosocial functioning. RESULTS: Meta-analyses consistently show that disorder-specific psychotherapies [cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), interpersonal, family, and group] augment mood stabilizers in reducing rates of relapse (OR = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.39-0.82) over 1-2 years. Specific mediating mechanisms include, but are not limited to, increasing medication adherence, teaching self-monitoring and early intervention with emergent episodes, and enhancing interpersonal functioning and family communication. All therapies have strengths and weaknesses. One group psychoeducation trial, demonstrated effect sizes for recurrence that are at least equivalent to individual therapies, but findings await replication. Family interventions have been successfully administered in both single and multi-family formats, but no studies report the comparative cost-effectiveness of these formats. The best-studied psychotherapy modality, CBT, can have beneficial effects on depression, but findings are inconsistent across studies and vary with sample characteristics and comparison treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Adjunctive psychotherapies can be cost-effective when weighed against observed reductions in recurrence, hospitalization and functional impairments. Future trials need to (i) clarify which populations are most likely to benefit from which strategies; (ii) identify putative mechanisms of action; (iii) systematically evaluate costs, benefits, and generalizability; and (iv) record adverse effects. The application of psychosocial interventions to young-onset populations deserves further study.

The effectiveness of group cognitive behaviour therapy for unipolar depressive disorders.

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of group cognitive behaviour therapy (GCBT) as an intervention for unipolar depressive disorders. PsychINFO and PubMed databases were selected to generate the 34 papers used for this review. Our results showed that effect sizes for GCBT over the control conditions range from small (0.1) to large (2.87) with the mean effect size of 1.10. The pre-post treatment effect sizes for GCBT range from 0.30 to 3.72 with a mean of 1.30. Convergent evidence was demonstrated across different outcome measures of GCBT. Our findings indicated that GCBT yielded outcomes better than no-treatment controls and was comparable with other treatments (including both bona fide and non-bona fide comparison treatments). It was concluded that GCBT was effective for the treatment of Unipolar depression and thus can be used with confidence. There is now an urgent need to develop and evaluate a coherent GCBT theory, in particular the roles of group processes in GCBT, before further major advancement in this area can be made.

Cognitive therapy: looking backward, looking forward.

This article reviews some of the historical factors associated with the unprecedented strength and popularity of cognitive therapy, and offers predictions for the next half-century of this approach to treatment. It is predicted that the future will bring with it increased demands on cognitive therapy for evaluation of processes of change (including identification of therapeutic specifics and nonspecifics, technical specification of the process of therapy, and examination of therapist and patient predictors of change), and accountability and efficiency in the public and private sectors. With the increase in personal autonomy, globalization, and technology, the demands from the general public also will increase. One possible risk of the trend towards increased technology is that cognitive therapy may become overly technical. Although specific therapy techniques are crucial to delivering effective treatment, it is also the "nonspecifics" of therapy that add to the "art" of psychotherapy. The final challenge of cognitive therapy also may be the most difficult--to continue to be an empirically based science while maintaining its role in the art of healing.

Practice parameters for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder.

These practice parameters review the current state of knowledge about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents. The parameters were written to aid clinicians in the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with PTSD symptoms. A literature search and extensive review were conducted in order to evaluate the existing empirical and clinical information in this regard. Expert consultation was also solicited. The main findings of this process were that a wide variety of stressors can lead to the development of PTSD symptoms in this population; that the specific PTSD symptoms manifested may vary according to the developmental stage of the child and the nature of the stressor, and for this reason, the diagnostic criteria for PTSD in adults may not adequately describe this disorder in children and adolescents; that several factors seem to mediate the development of childhood PTSD following a severe stressor; and that most of the therapeutic interventions recommended for children with PTSD are trauma-focused and include some degree of direct discussion of the trauma. Controversies and unresolved issues regarding PTSD in children are also addressed.

Behavioral couples treatment of alcohol and drug use disorders: current status and innovations.

Research suggests that Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT), tailored to treat alcohol problems, produces significant reduction in alcohol consumption and improvement in marital functioning. Having established basic clinical protocols for Alcohol Behavioral Couples Therapy (ABCT) and provided support for their efficacy, clinical researchers around the country continue to develop and study new applications of the basic ABCT treatment models, such as adding relapse prevention or Alcoholics Anonymous components. Recent research supporting the heterogeneity in the population of individuals with alcohol problems has prompted some researchers on ABCT to consider additional adaptations of the treatment models for specific subgroups of alcoholics, and for particular individual and couples characteristics. Adaptation of ABCT to treat new populations such as drug abusers, female alcoholics, and problem drinkers is under investigation. The current article provides an overview of theoretical and clinical aspects of ABCT, and research on efficacy of the basic model and on areas of innovation and adaptation to new populations. Directions for future research on ABCT are suggested.