Psychotherapeutic Interventions

Author(s):  
Jocelyn Soffer ◽  
César A. Alfonso ◽  
John Grimaldi ◽  
Jack M. Gorman

Psychotherapeutic care for persons with HIV is an important component of overall treatment, helping people to cope and decreasing the psychological suffering that may be attendant when navigating the complex array of biopsychosocial stresses and challenges of living with HIV. A combination of psychotherapeutic and psychosocial interventions can effectively address psychological aspects of functioning and reduce psychiatric symptoms, as well as improve adherence to risk reduction and medical care. This chapter reviews several psychotherapeutic interventions, including supportive, psychodynamic, and interpersonal psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and motivational interviewing. Both individual and group settings are discussed, as well as the particular settings of spiritual care, family therapy, and couples therapy.

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison J. Applebaum ◽  
William Breitbart

AbstractObjective:Informal caregivers (ICs) are relatives, friends, and partners who have a significant relationship with and provide assistance (i.e., physical, emotional) to a patient with a life- threatening, incurable illness. The multidimensional burden that results from providing care to a patient with cancer is well documented, and as a result, a growing number of psychosocial interventions have been developed specifically to address this burden. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the state of the science of psychosocial interventions for informal cancer caregivers.Method:A comprehensive systematic review of interventions for cancer caregivers was conducted via an electronic literature search of publications between 1980 and January 13, 2011. A final sample of 49 interventions was reviewed in detail.Results:The interventions, which varied in terms of modality and patient population, fell into the following eight categories: psychoeducation, problem-solving/skills building interventions, supportive therapy, family/couples therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, complementary and alternative medicine interventions, and existential therapy. Benefits and disadvantages of each of the categories are discussed, with special attention given to studies that produced null findings.Significance of results:Beyond specific techniques, structured, goal-oriented, and time-limited interventions that are integrative appear to be the most feasible and offer the greatest benefits for ICs of cancer patients. Future studies are needed to examine the specific benefits and challenges of delivering interventions in alternative modalities (Internet, Skype) so that the needs of a greater number of ICs may be addressed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Munro ◽  
Karen-Leigh Edward

Objective: The notion of caregiver ‘burden’ has been used as a term that refers to the financial, physical and emotional effects of caring. This Australian 2002 research investigated the caregiver burden of HIV/AIDS on the gay male carers of gay men with the disease. Methods: This study was a phenomenological inquiry and employed van Manen’s approach to content analysis. Data saturation occurred at twelve participants. Results: The findings produced carer themes relating to coping with the burden of care of a person living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the context of living day-to-day with HIV/AIDS, coping with the last phase of AIDS toward death, saying goodbye and remembrance. Conclusion: Allocating resources to gay male carers such as; education, respite care, family therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to address grief and stigma issues, has implications for how health services might reduce the burden of care for these carers.


Author(s):  
Jocelyn Soffer ◽  
Mary Ann Cohen

Persons living with HIV and AIDS face a complex array of stresses and challenges, as discussed throughout this book, which may overwhelm psychological functioning. This leads to considerable distress and suffering (Cohen et al., 2002), manifests in a multitude of psychiatric symptoms, and increases nonadherence to risk reduction and medical care. The aim of psychotherapeutic care for persons with HIV is to mitigate such distress through a combination of psychosocial interventions. Goals of such therapies may include enhancing adaptive coping strategies, facilitating adjustment to living with HIV, increasing social supports, and improving a patient’s sense of purpose, self-esteem, and overall well-being. Goals may also include improving adherence to risk reduction and medical care, as well as preventing HIV transmission. Psychological distress in persons with HIV infection is associated with decreased quality of life, disease progression, and mortality (Leserman, 2008). Considering the biopsychosocial model, emotional distress in HIV can be viewed as resulting from a combination of medical, psychological, and social factors related to the illness (see Table 8.1). In some studies, improved social support and active coping styles in response to illness and stress have correlated with improved immunological parameters. Studies have also linked depressed mood and stressful life events to worsened immunological status, including decreased CD4 cell counts. Nonetheless, randomized controlled data demonstrating the ability of behavioral and social interventions to improve immune status remain conflicted; further evidence-based research is needed. While improving immunological status is a potential benefit of psychosocial treatment for people with HIV infection, it is relieving the suffering inherent to psychiatric illness and improving patients’ quality of life that remain the primary goals. A variety of psychosocial interventions are available to persons with HIV, from individual to group-based formats. Such treatments span a spectrum of psychotherapeutic approaches, including supportive, psychodynamic, interpersonal, and cognitive-behavioral. This chapter will consider the benefits of such psychosocial interventions by summarizing the current state of research and findings for each of these treatment approaches, addressing both individual and group settings.


Children ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1045
Author(s):  
Cynthia Fair ◽  
Amanda Thompson ◽  
Marie Barnett ◽  
Stacy Flowers ◽  
June Burke ◽  
...  

One of the Standards of Psychosocial Care for Children with Cancer and their Families recommends that all youth with cancer and their family members have access to psychotherapeutic interventions and support throughout the cancer trajectory. This study was created to identify the psychosocial interventions and services provided to children with cancer and their family members, to ascertain whether there are differences in interventions provided by age of the patient and stage of treatment, and to learn about barriers to psychosocial service provision. An online survey was disseminated to psychosocial providers through the listservs of national and international professional organizations. The majority of the 242 respondents were either psychologists (39.3%) or social workers (26.9%) and 79.7% worked in the United States. The intervention offered most often to pediatric patients, caregivers, and siblings, at every stage of treatment, was psychoeducation (41.7–48.8%). Evidence-based interventions, including cognitive behavioral therapy (56.6%) and mindfulness-based interventions (57.9%) were reported to be frequently used with patients. Interventions designed specifically for the pediatric oncology population were not commonly endorsed. Psychosocial providers reported quality of care would be improved by additional staff, better communication/collaboration with medical team members and increased community-based resources. Future research should focus on improving accessibility to population-specific evidenced-based interventions and translating science to practice.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-223
Author(s):  
Rostislav A. Grekhov ◽  
Galina P. Suleimanova ◽  
Andrei S. Trofimenko ◽  
Liudmila N. Shilova

This review highlights the issue of psychosomatic conditions in rheumatoid arthritis, paying special attention to new researches and trends in this field. Emerging concepts in all the major parts of the problem are covered consecutively, from the impact of chronic musculoskeletal pain on the emotional state to disease influence over quality of life, socio-psychological, and interpersonal relationships. Chronic pain is closely related to emotional responses and coping ability, with a pronounced positive effect of psychotherapeutic interventions, family and social support on it. Psychosexual disorders, anxiety, depression also commonly coexist with rheumatoid arthritis, leading to further decrease in quality of life, low compliance, and high suicide risk. Influence of psychosomatic conditions on the overall treatment effect is usually underestimated by rheumatologists and general practitioners. Psychosomatic considerations are of great importance for up-to-date management of rheumatoid arthritis, as they strongly influence the quality of life, compliance, and thereby disease outcomes. Two major approaches of psychological rehabilitation exist, both coping with pain through the regulation of emotion and psychotherapeutic intervention, which not only helps patients in coping with the disease, but also aimed at improving the overall adaptation of the patient. It includes techniques of relaxation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and biofeedback therapy. Current data about the efficacy of the additional correcting therapies for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, both emerging and common ones, are discussed in the review.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Dellazizzo ◽  
Stéphane Potvin ◽  
Kingsada Phraxayavong ◽  
Alexandre Dumais

AbstractThe gold-standard cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) for psychosis offers at best modest effects. With advances in technology, virtual reality (VR) therapies for auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), such as AVATAR therapy (AT) and VR-assisted therapy (VRT), are amid a new wave of relational approaches that may heighten effects. Prior trials have shown greater effects of these therapies on AVH up to a 24-week follow-up. However, no trial has compared them to a recommended active treatment with a 1-year follow-up. We performed a pilot randomized comparative trial evaluating the short- and long-term efficacy of VRT over CBT for patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Patients were randomized to VRT (n = 37) or CBT (n = 37). Clinical assessments were administered before and after each intervention and at follow-up periods up to 12 months. Between and within-group changes in psychiatric symptoms were assessed using linear mixed-effects models. Short-term findings showed that both interventions produced significant improvements in AVH severity and depressive symptoms. Although results did not show a statistically significant superiority of VRT over CBT for AVH, VRT did achieve larger effects particularly on overall AVH (d = 1.080 for VRT and d = 0.555 for CBT). Furthermore, results suggested a superiority of VRT over CBT on affective symptoms. VRT also showed significant results on persecutory beliefs and quality of life. Effects were maintained up to the 1-year follow-up. VRT highlights the future of patient-tailored approaches that may show benefits over generic CBT for voices. A fully powered single-blind randomized controlled trial comparing VRT to CBT is underway.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Waldron ◽  
Inger Burnett-Zeigler ◽  
Victoria Wee ◽  
Yiukee Warren Ng ◽  
Linda J. Koenig ◽  
...  

Women living with HIV (WLWH) experience depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms at higher rates than their male counterparts and more often than HIV-unaffected women. These mental health issues affect not only the well-being and quality of life of WLWH, but have implications for HIV management and transmission prevention. Despite these ramifications, WLWH are under-treated for mental health concerns and they are underrepresented in the mental health treatment literature. In this review, we illustrate the unique mental health issues faced by WLWH such as a high prevalence of physical and sexual abuse histories, caregiving stress, and elevated internalized stigma as well as myriad barriers to care. We examine the feasibility and outcomes of mental health interventions that have been tested in WLWH including cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, and supportive counseling. Future research is required to address individual and systemic barriers to mental health care for WLWH.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
S.V. Babina ◽  
N.V. Dvoryanchikov

The paper studies the possibility of interventions for people with abnormal sexual preferences. Authors reviewed domestic and foreign scientific publications described the treatment of sexual disorders and the basic directions of the therapy, and indicated its positive and negative aspects. We have studied progress notes and etiology of "personality disorders and behavior in adulthood" disease class, "disorders of sexual preference" disease subsection and analyzed the efficiency of the psychopharmacological treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and psychotherapy for each violation of sexual preference. The most productive methods of psychotherapeutic intervention were identified. This analysis allows making the most appropriate scheme of psychological correction and treatment for persons with abnormalities of sexual preference.


10.2196/24406 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. e24406
Author(s):  
Eric Granholm ◽  
Jason Holden ◽  
Kristen Dwyer ◽  
Tanya Mikhael ◽  
Peter Link ◽  
...  

Background Negative symptoms are an important unmet treatment need for schizophrenia. This study is a preliminary, open, single-arm trial of a novel hybrid intervention called mobile-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy for negative symptoms (mCBTn). Objective The primary aim was to test whether mCBTn was feasible and could reduce severity of the target mechanism, defeatist performance attitudes, which are associated with experiential negative symptoms and poor functioning in schizophrenia. Methods Participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N=31) who met prospective criteria for persistent negative symptoms were enrolled. The blended intervention combines weekly in-person group therapy with a smartphone app called CBT2go. The app extended therapy group skills, including recovery goal setting, thought challenging, scheduling of pleasurable activities and social interactions, and pleasure-savoring interventions to modify defeatist attitudes and improve experiential negative symptoms. Results Retention was excellent (87% at 18 weeks), and severity of defeatist attitudes and experiential negative symptoms declined significantly in the mCBTn intervention with large effect sizes. Conclusions The findings suggest that mCBTn is a feasible and potentially effective treatment for experiential negative symptoms, if confirmed in a larger randomized controlled trial. The findings also provide support for the defeatist attitude model of experiential negative symptoms and suggest that blended technology-supported interventions such as mCBTn can strengthen and shorten intensive psychosocial interventions for schizophrenia. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03179696; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03179696


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