Review of Single session therapy: Maximizing the effect of the first (and often only) therapeutic encounter.

Reviews the book, Single session therapy: Maximizing the effect of the first (and often only) therapeutic encounter by Moshe Talmon (1990). One of the rationales for the book is the claim that in the reality of the practical world, patients frequently attend only one session of therapy. According to the author, there is considerable evidence in more than thirty years of literature to indicate that the single session psychotherapeutic encounter is the most common length of treatment. The majority of the book (chapters 2 to 7) deals with specific issues in the application of planned single session therapy (SST). There are chapters on guidelines for effective SST, empowering your patient, learning from failures, attitudes that facilitate SST, and a detailed case example. These chapters, like the rest of the book, are clearly written, practical, and free of jargon. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activity of the psychologist within the inpatient psychotherapy of behavior disordered children and adolescents

The author, after discussing the problem of cooperation between the physician and psychologist within the framework of psychotherapeutic activity, deals with the special functions of psychologists. Work done in this respect at the Dresden Medical Academy's department for psychotherapy of malbehaving children and juveniles of normal intelligence is described. Also outlined in this paper are the role played by the psychologist in the use of various methods of therapy and his cooperation in the continuing education and training of nurses, the psychometric control of the course of therapy, and the rehabilitation of children and juveniles.     

The effects of resistance training on well-being and memory in elderly volunteers

In vitro affinity tests were conducted to test the effectiveness of 19 activated carbons (ACs), hydrates sodium calcium aluminosilicate (HSCAS) and sepiolite (S) in binding ochratoxin A (OA) and deoxynivalenol (DON) from solution. Relationships between adsorption ability and physicochemical parameters of ACs (surface area, iodine number, methylene blue index) were tested. When 5 ml of a 4-micrograms/ml aqueous solution of OA was treated with 2 mg of AC, the ACs adsorbed 0.80 to 99.86% of the OA. HSCAS and S were not effective in binding OA. In two saturation tests carried out with increased amounts of OA (5 ml of 10-and 50-micrograms/ml aqueous solutions of OA, respectively) three ACs also showed high adsorption ability (adsorbing 92.23 to 96.57% of the OA). When 5 ml of a 4-micrograms/ml aqueous solution of DON was treated with 10 mg of AC, ACs adsored 1.83 to 98.93% of the DON. HSCAS and S were not effective in binding DON. An overall relation of adsorption ability to the physicochemical parameters of ACs was observed. The methylene blue index was more reliable than iodine number and surface area in predicting ability of ACs to adsorb OA and DON. Based on the data observed on the xxxxx eh present study as well as on aflatoxin B1 and fumonisin B1 from previous studies, it is concluded that ACs have high in vitro affinity for chemically different mycotoxins, and can be considered as potential multi-mycotoxin-sequestering agents. However, the ability to bind the main mycotoxins singly or in combination should be confirmed by in vivo investigations. Moreover, information on the amounts of AC to be added to feeds, and on the possible long-term effect on absorption of essential nutrients are needed.     

Endoscopic neurosurgery and endoscope-assisted microneurosurgery for the treatment of intracranial cysts

OBJECTIVE: Different endoscopic techniques have been introduced into neurosurgery, but accepted terminology and definitions are still missing. We propose a terminology based on whether the endoscope is used alone or in conjunction with an operating microscope and on whether the route of surgical manipulations is through or outside the endoscope. Accordingly, procedures are categorized into endoscopic neurosurgery (EN), endoscope-assisted microneurosurgery (EAM), and endoscope-controlled microneurosurgery (ECM). METHODS: We treated 36 patients with intracranial arachnoid cysts (ACs) and intraventricular cysts endoscopically. The patients ranged in age from 4 months to 69 years (mean age, 31 yr). The follow-up period ranged from 6 to 44 months (mean follow-up duration, 14 mo). The indications were hydrocephalus in 17 patients, focal neurological deficits in 4 patients, progressive nonlocalizing symptomatology in 13 patients, and space occupation in 2 asymptomatic patients. EN was used in 14 cases, EAM in 15 cases, and ECM in 7 cases. RESULTS: The overall success rate was 70%. Nine patients (25%) had unchanged symptomatology, and the condition of two patients (5%) deteriorated. The best success rates were achieved in patients with intraventricular cysts (89%) and posterior fossa ACs (78%). Symptomatic improvement was best achieved in patients with hydrocephalus or focal neurological deficits (81%). CONCLUSION: Different endoscopic techniques (i.e., EN, EAM, and ECM) provide sufficient treatment of selected intracranial cysts. Our data suggest that intraventricular cysts and suprasellar ACs should be approached using EN whereas posterior fossa and sylvian ACs may be more effectively treated using a combined technique (EAM or ECM).     

Positive emotions as generators of therapeutic change.

The purpose of this article is to highlight commonalities and facilitate links between the domains of psychotherapy and positive psychology. The authors describe the Broaden-and-Build theory and suggest that it has heuristic value for understanding psychotherapeutic processes. The authors propose that broadening represents a common factor in intrapersonal therapy that contributes to many helpful change events across different psychotherapies. The upward spiral in which positive emotions and broadening feed one another enlarges current psychotherapeutic conceptualizations by suggesting that positive emotions are not just indicators but also generators of change. The positive emotion-broadening spiral offers new avenues for research and ways to understand existing research, an alternative avenue to therapeutic change, and a method to tailor therapeutic work to individual clients. It also bridges researcher, clinician, and client points of view about key change events. Links between different viewpoints enhance therapeutic work. Links across lines of theorizing and research foster interdisciplinary ties that fertilize both fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenia and the collapse of the dialogical self: Recovery, narrative and psychotherapy.

Asks the questions: How do personal narratives disintegrate in schizophrenia, and how should narrative issues in schizophrenia be addressed in individual psychotherapy? To examine these issues, this article presents a case analysis of 19 Ss suggesting that narratives in schizophrenia are compromised when internal dialogue either dissolves into cacophonous disarray or becomes too singularly and rigidly organized. It is suggested, therefore, that one way psychotherapy may be useful to persons with schizophrenia is to facilitate the reemergence of internal dialogue through external dialogue. In particular, psychotherapy can assist persons with schizophrenia to develop a narrative that allows for recovery by creating a context for increasing self-awareness and agency. The authors propose that, in the midst of the ongoing development of numerous psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia, the ability to facilitate narrative coherence may represent a unique psychotherapeutic contribution to recovery for persons with this condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Common interventions in two single cases of cognitive and psychoanalytic psychotherapies.

The aim of this study was to examine the interventions used in two nonmanualized psychotherapeutic treatments—one cognitive and one psychoanalytically oriented—; assessing the theoretical framework's pervasiveness in terms of the specificity of the interventions implemented by the psychotherapists. Our purpose was to observe which proportion of the therapists' interventions were directly associated with their theoretical background, and which proportion of them represented common, nonspecific or specific interventions. For this research, 29 sessions from a psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic treatment and 15 sessions from a cognitive psychotherapeutic treatment (both audio-recorded and transcribed), were analyzed. The classifications of psychotherapeutic interventions developed by Roussos, Etchebarne, and Waizmann (2005; Roussos, Waizmann, and Etchebarne, 2003) were used in order to characterize the interventions. Results show that both treatments were highly impregnated by nonspecific interventions. Only an average of 17% of the interventions in the psychoanalytic treatment and a 16% in the cognitive treatment, were specific of the theoretical frameworks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a participatory model of psychotherapy.

A pervasive model of the psychotherapeutic relationship has assumed that patient welfare is best served by the therapist's exercise of control over and responsibility for methods, goals, and decisions in treatment. However, increased sensitivity to ethical dilemmas in the routine conduct of therapy and more vocal demands by the users of mental health services are likely to lead to a restructuring of the psychotherapeutic relationship. A mutual participatory model of therapy is advocated that would give a central place to active, skeptical efforts by the patient to be informed and to share responsibility for therapeutic decisions. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The residential therapeutic caring community.

The residential therapeutic caring community (RTCC) for adolescents combines psychotherapeutic principles of the professional model and self-help concept of the therapeutic community by using the collective resources of members to mobilize peer pressure. The RTCC is a safe, structured, supportive treatment environment that employs a confrontation, teaching, interpretative, and reasoning approach and uses the psychotherapeutic principles of reality therapy and existential thought. In the RTCC, the staff serve as mentors and role models, and they demonstrate their concern by maintaining high expectations for immediate improved behavior. The personal qualities necessary for a psychotherapist working in an RTCC are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies on the efficacy of child psychoanalysis.

This article summarizes 3 studies that evaluated the psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic treatment of diabetic children and adolescents with grossly abnormal blood glucose profiles necessitating repeated admissions to hospital. Study 1 used time series analysis to demonstrate that improvements in control were predicted by unconscious themes emerging in the analytic material. Study 2 compared the effect of psychotherapeutic treatment with that of minimal psychological intervention in 2 well-matched groups (n?=?11). Patients in the treatment group were offered psychoanalytic psychotherapy 3–4 times per week on the hospital ward. The intervention was highly effective in improving the diabetic control of the children, and this improvement was maintained at 1-yr follow-up. Study 3 used single-case experimental design to demonstrate the marked effect of psychotherapeutic help on growth in diabetic children with short stature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion and cognition in psychotherapy: The transforming power of affect.

Theory and research on emotion in both psychology and psychotherapy are reviewed to demonstrate the importance of emotion in human functioning and psychotherapeutic change. A proposal is made for the importance of integrating empirically supported emotion-focused change processes into psychotherapeutic work. Five principles of change in the emotion domain-emotion awareness; expression; regulation; reflection on emotion; and the more novel principle of emotion transformation, by which emotion is changed by emotion-are offered as processes of change that are rapidly gathering empirical support. The result of emotion coming of age will be the expansion of theories of dysfunction and of treatment to include emotion-focused coping and emotional processes of change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Competency judgments in the training and evaluation of psychotherapists.

Competency or skillfulness refers to the quality of the therapist's interventions. Competency evaluations, although difficult to make, are useful in the training of psychotherapists. Several competency scales are reviewed, and most of these raise significant concerns about interrater reliability and predictive validity. It is argued that competency is best considered a state-like variable, with therapists demonstrating higher competence when they skillfully treat patients across a range of difficulty levels. Competency scales may facilitate the development of a generally accepted standard within a specific psychotherapeutic modality. For competency measures to gain practical acceptance, supervisors must accept their value for documenting replicable qualitative observations of therapists' behavior both within and across cases. The development of standards of psychotherapy practice awaits further scale development and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integrative conceptual and organizational framework for treating suicidal behavior.

The current article provides an integrative conceptual and organizational framework for addressing suicidal behavior in clinical practice with 3 identifiable goals. The first goal is to provide a clinically accessible summary of treatment and assessment tasks (i.e., the content of therapy and assessment) consistent with existing standards of care and supported by empirical findings but not dependent on psychotherapeutic orientation. The 2nd goal is to summarize and discuss the uniformity and clinical implications of relevant process variables, as well as the complicating role of time and chronicity in assessment and treatment. The 3rd goal is to emphasize the varied roles, tasks, demands, and limitations of psychotherapy with suicidal patients. In general, the current article provides a flexible, yet comprehensive and thorough, template for treatment planning, risk assessment, patient management, and ongoing monitoring that is applicable regardless of the psychotherapeutic model employed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A hospital play program: helping children with serious illness

Children hospitalized with a life-threatening disease are experiencing a severely stressful situation that is often confusing, frightening, and anxiety-provoking. This paper describes a play-therapy program designed to facilitate the expression of these feelings, enhance the sense of mastery, foster adaptive behavior, and increase cooperation with medical treatment.     

The Cultural Context and the Psychotherapeutic Process: Toward a Culturally Sensitive Psychotherapy.

Cross-cultural psychotherapy has striven to refine its intervention strategies during the last 2 decades. However, many authors have noted that these advances seem disconnected from each other and from traditional psychotherapeutic approaches. This article offers a conceptual framework that groups very diverse psychotherapeutic approaches into 3 broad categories according to some of their basic assumptions. Some cross-cultural psychotherapeutic models are also located within these 3 categories as a means to link different and apparently fragmented cross-cultural models to traditional psychotherapeutic models. It is argued that the proposed conceptual framework allows clinicians to intervene in a more effective manner than if these different psychotherapeutic models remained fragmented and disconnected. The proposed conceptual framework allows clinicians to benefit in a coherent manner from the advantages of different psychotherapeutic recommendations. Finally, the psychotherapeutic usefulness of this model is illustrated through a case presentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Men, gender stereotyping, and psychotherapy: Therapists' perceptions of male clients.

Male sex roles and gender stereotyping prescribe for men a way of being that is characterized by strength, self-containment, emotional control, and self-sufficiency. In this article, interviews with therapists are used to describe how aspects of traditional male socialization can negatively affect men's relationships and general sense of well-being. Suggestions for psychotherapeutic treatment with men are also made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The randomization problem in psychotherapy studies

In a research project comparing inpatient and outpatient psychotherapeutic treatment for patients suffering from anxiety disorders, 132 subjects were allocated to both treatments by means of randomisation. Because of the patients' voluntary agreement or refusal of the proposed treatment, the subsamples are markedly affected in their homogeneity. It seems that more disturbed patients agreed to inpatient psychotherapy, whereas less disturbed patients refused that form of treatment. Bias toward or against a given form of treatment turned out to be the most potent predictor in multivariate analysis. The influence of this distortion of the samples is discussed with regard to the generalisation of the results. Proposed countermeasures have their shortcomings, and in the end it seems that randomisation should be avoided in psychotherapeutic research.     

Efficacy and specific effects data on new treatments: A case study strategy with mixed anxiety-depression.

The case study research strategy presented here can be used to develop new psychotherapeutic treatments, test theorized mechanisms of action, and obtain initial outcome data of the type needed to support treatment outcome grant applications. The strategy is illustrated by 2 case studies of a new psychotherapeutic intervention for patients with coexisting generalized anxiety disorder and major depression as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-Revised (DSM-III-R). The treatment is a modification and integration of existing treatments for panic disorder (D. H. Barlow & M. G. Craske, 1989) and for major depression (G. L. Klerman et al, 1984). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pharmacologic treatment for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders

Pediatric anxiety disorders are common illnesses that, if left untreated, may induce academic, family, and interpersonal problems. Cognitive-behavioral techniques and other psychotherapeutic interventions may be adequate for the treatment of most anxiety disorders. For patients with severe symptoms or for whom psychotherapeutic approaches are not adequate, medications are indicated. Among the available medications, the SSRIs are currently the first choice; however, other medications, such as the benzodiazepines and the TCAs, may be used alone or sometimes in combination with the SSRIs. Caution with respect to medication interactions and side effects is indicated. In particular, long-term side effects in these medications have not been well studied.     

Emotionally disturbed mentally retarded people: An underserved population.

Discusses the need to increase the supply of psychotherapeutic services for the emotional problems of mentally retarded people as well as those of people with IQs between 70 and 80. Low IQ may increase the risk of emotional disturbance because it creates special adjustment problems while limiting the individual's ability to solve these problems. Low IQ may decrease the opportunity for adequate psychotherapeutic services because of administrative, conceptual, and attitudinal reasons. It is suggested that a multidimensional approach is needed to meet the mental health needs of the mentally retarded that involves more research on emotional development, implementation of demonstration programs, and the design of cost-effective treatment packages. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)