Corrigendum to “The relative efficacy of bona fide psychotherapies for treating post-traumatic stress disorder: A meta-analysis of direct comparisons” [Clinical Psychology Review 28 (2008) 766–75]

You can't step into the same river twice, but you can stub your toes on the same rock: Psychotherapy outcome from a 50-year perspective.

“…Perhaps it is the case that as the field increasingly distances treatment practices from underlying grand theoretical motives, and toward specific manual-based response modes, there is a waning of interest in bridging the theory underlying a particular brand of therapy and practices embedded in the description or manual of the treatment. For example, there have been several studies providing evidence that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective treatment for some trauma-related problems, but there is little, if any, evidence linking the proposed underlying change mechanism to outcome (Cahill, Carrigan, & Frueh, 1999; Benish, Imel, & Wampold, 2008). The culture of therapy outcome research has became more pragmatic, focusing on changes at the symptom, client satisfaction, and performance level, and less interested in tracking the links between these changes underlying psychological processes.…”

Personality Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence comes of Age: a Review of the Current Evidence and Prospects for Future Research

“…Of course, control treatments such as TAU or GCC should not be equated across studies, and research suggests that the choice of comparison treatment can considerably influence effect sizes in psychotherapy research (199,200), which has also been demonstrated in recent RCTs for treatments of borderline PD in adult patients (201)(202)(203)(204)(205). However, a general finding from RCTs for treatment of borderline PD in both adolescent and adult samples (206) and in reviews and metaanalyses of psychotherapy outcome research is that there is often little or no difference in efficacy among various bona fide psychotherapeutic treatments (207)(208)(209)(210); a finding commonly referred to as the Dodo bird verdict (211). Taken together this points toward the importance of common factors, extra-therapeutic factors, and placebo effects (206,(212)(213)(214)(215)(216).…”

Culturally adapted psychotherapy and the legitimacy of myth: A direct-comparison meta-analysis.

“…Specifically, direct-comparison studies of two bona fide forms of treatment provide better estimates of relative efficacy than comparisons involving non–bona fide treatments, such as comparing culturally adapted psychotherapy to a supportive therapy condition not intended to be therapeutic (i.e., non–bona fide treatment) or wait-list controls. Non–bona fide supportive therapies, as operationalized in clinical trials, typically involve basic listening skills and attention of an empathic therapist but proscribe specific psychological ingredients hypothesized to remediate the client's problem and often prohibit therapists from taking therapeutic actions beyond basic generic problem solving or empathic listening (Wampold et al, 1997; see also Benish, Imel, & Wampold, 2008; Wampold et al, 2010). Direct comparisons of two bona fide treatments are optimal for assessing relative efficacy (Wampold & Serlin, 2000) because direct comparisons eliminate potential confounds between studies such as client population, severity of distress, and differences in assessment, as these variables are comparable across the two samples (Shadish & Sweeney, 1991).…”

“…An intriguing theoretical subtlety is crucial to understanding a conundrum that emerges from relative efficacy studies of psychotherapy. Rather compelling evidence indicates that bona fide psychotherapies produce relatively equal outcomes in general (Wampold et al, 1997) and for specific disorders (Benish et al, 2008; Miller, Wampold, & Varhely, 2008; Spielmans, Pasek, & McFall, 2007; Wampold, 2002). Furthermore, empirical evidence demonstrates that removing or adding specific psychological ingredients to a psychotherapy treatment does not alter the efficacy of the treatment (Ahn & Wampold, 2001; Jacobson et al, 1996; Wampold, 2001, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, empirical evidence demonstrates that removing or adding specific psychological ingredients to a psychotherapy treatment does not alter the efficacy of the treatment (Ahn & Wampold, 2001; Jacobson et al, 1996; Wampold, 2001, 2007). Benish et al (2008) illustrated the point when reviewing psychotherapy treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: Adding cognitive restructuring to exposure does not augment cognitive changes over exposure therapy alone (Bryant, Moulds, Guthrie, Dang, & Nixon, 2003; Foa et al, 2005; Foa & Rauch, 2004; Marks, Lovell, Noshirvani, Livanou, & Thrasher, 1998). Adding exposure to stress inoculation does not improve outcomes of PTSD patients receiving stress inoculation therapy alone (Foa et al, 1999) or family therapy alone (Glynn et al, 1999).…”