Week 11: Psychological Treatments

Question 1

What are the key elements of the therapeutic alliance (3)?

Answer 1

1. Working collaboratively on the problem
2. Agreement b/w patient and therapist on goals and tasks
3. Affective bond b/w patient and therapist

Question 2

How do you measure success in psychotherapy?

Answer 2

• client’s reports of change in symptoms
• clinical rating of change
• reports from family and friends
• comparison of pretreatment and posttreatment scores on instruments
• measures of change in overt behaviours

Question 3

What influences a therapeutic outcome?

Answer 3

• therapeutic alliance
• motivation and degree of hope
• therapist cultural awareness
• evidence based supporting intervention

Question 4

What are RCTs, and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Answer 4

• randomised clinical trials (RCTs): randomly assigning half of patients to active group and other half to placebo, usually double blind
  A - able to compare the effects of a new drug
  D - withholding treatment from a group, therapists differ in the way they deliver therapy, difficult to create placebo that appears credible to patients