What Works for Whom?, Second Edition : A Critical Review of Psychotherapy Research

This acclaimed work provides a systematic, comprehensive, and balanced evaluation of the current status of all major psychotherapeutic approaches. With a primary focus on adults, detailed evidence is presented for the efficacy of widely used interventions for frequently encountered mental disorders and specific populations. The book also explains the concepts that underpin psychotherapy research, examines methodological challenges in translating research into practice, and considers the impact on outcome of factors common to all therapies, such as therapist and patient characteristics. Peter B. Zeldow This book consists primarily of 18 chapters devoted to reviewing the scientific evidence concerning the benefits of psychotherapy for patients with psychiatric disorders. The majority of the chapters are concerned with specific disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders. The book's purpose is to determine which psychotherapeutic interventions are of demonstrated benefit to which patient groups. Another aim is to improve the quality of clinical practice and the rationality of third-party treatment authorization decisions through the provision of the empirical evidence. Such efforts are especially timely. The book is written for clinical practitioners (of all disciplinary persuasions), psychotherapy researchers, and mental health service policymakers. Graduate students in clinical psychology will be particularly interested in the book's contents. An important feature of the book is the authors' decision to emphasize controlled studies. The references are current and pertinent, methodological considerations are discussed intelligently, and both subject and author indexes are useful. This is a timely book, thoughtfully conceived, and carefully written. It is concise and practical, but it captures the complexity of research and clinical practice and is clear as to the limitations of our current knowledge. I recommend it for purchase. Meeting the growing demand for resources on evidence-based practice, this acclaimed work has now been fully revised and expanded with the latest treatment data. Like its predecessor, the second edition provides a systematic, comprehensive, and balanced evaluation of the current status of all major psychotherapeutic approaches. Detailed evidence is presented for the efficacy of widely used interventions for frequently encountered mental disorders and for special populations, including children and adolescents and older adults. The concepts that underpin psychotherapy research are explicated, and methodological challenges in translating research into practice addressed. Also examined is the impact of therapist and client characteristics on outcome, regardless of the specific interventions used.