Psychotherapy: A Path to Healing Trauma, Coping & Mental Disorders - Research Paper

Introduction

Psychotherapy is a form of therapy that helps individuals with high levels of emotional difficulties and mental illness. Psychotherapy helps to minimize the troubling signs that a person may be experiencing so that he or she may function better and also increase healing and personal wellbeing. Some of the significant problems that are solved by psychotherapy include the impacts of trauma, challenges coping with the daily life, death of a loved one and various mental disorders. For psychotherapy to function appropriately, it may be used together with other forms of medication or therapies. This study aims to assess whether conducting psychotherapy among patients helps to reduce mental health conditions.

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Psychotherapy is considered to be one of the most effective methods of solving or handling the mental health conditions across the globe as compared to other methods. For example, psychotherapy tends to be more effective than medication in treating the depression cases mainly when long term follow-up and consumer satisfaction factors are considered (Weisz, Ugueto, Cheron, & Herren, 2013). It is also considered to be effective across all age groups, ranging from children to old adults and across all settings ranging that range from independent practices to community centres. According to research, it is estimated that the effects of psychotherapy are more significant as compared to the effects triggered by other forms of medical treatment (Halfon, Larson, & Slusser, 2013). Psychotherapy tends to be useful to approximately 80% of the population. However, nearly five to ten per cent of the mental health patients usually experience adverse effects after using this type of therapy (Freeman, Reeve, Robinson, Ehlers, Clark, Spanlang, & Slater, 2017).

There are various types of psychotherapy which are used to treat the mental health conditions. However, it is considered that some individuals respond to a specific kind of therapy as compared to the other. The different types of psychotherapy include. First, the cognitive behaviour therapy, this type of treatment enable people to identify and change the behaviour and thinking patterns that are usually harmful through replacing them with factional behaviours. This type of therapy allows people to focus on their current challenges and identify the effective ways of solving those (Dobson & Dozois, 2019). Secondly, interpersonal treatment, this is a short term method of therapy that enables the patients to acknowledge the underlying personal issues that tend to be troublesome, for example, the unresolved grief. Thirdly, dialectical behaviour therapy, this is a unique type of cognitive behaviour therapy that plays the role of regulating emotions. This type of treatment is mainly used to treat individuals with severe suicidal thoughts and individuals with posttraumatic disorders (Weisz et al., 2013). Fifth, psychodynamic therapy, this type of treatment indicates that childhood experiences and inappropriate repetitive thoughts usually influence personal mental well-being and behaviour.

Does Psychotherapy Among Patients Help Reduce Mental Health Conditions?

This PICO question on psychotherapy contains all the PICO elements that include; the problem, the intervention method, the comparisons involved and the expected outcome. In this case, the problem being experienced is a mental health condition. The intervention method that is to be implemented is psychotherapy; the comparisons involved in this PICO question include, using psychotherapy and using other methods to treat mental health conditions such as medication. The expected outcome of the PICO question is to reduce the mental health conditions experienced by patients in society. This PICO question can be considered to be a diagnosis question because psychotherapy is mainly used to treat or reduce the mental health conditions being experienced by the population such as depression, psychiatric disorders, and anxiety (Cuijpers et al., 2013). Psychotherapy is considered to be one of the methods used in treating mental health conditions. Therefore the PICO question tries to confirm whether psychotherapy is more effective as compared to other methods such as medication treatment.

What Databases And Electronic Resources Did You Search?

To access more information that can effectively solve the PICO question, I used various database and electronic resources, which include; first, PsycINFO. This database was crucial in my research since it composed of mental health and behaviour components which are essential in conducting the study. The mental health and behaviour components in this database help to identify the various methods used to treat the mental health issues and also identify the most effective way of treating the conditions (Wampold & Imel, 2015). Secondly, PubMed. This database was also useful in my research since it contains crucial information on the life sciences and the biomedical topics, which provide very vital information necessary information on mental health topic. To identify the existing mental health conditions, one has to be familiar with the general life sciences that provide the primary information concern with these conditions. Thirdly, CINAHL. This database also formed a significant part of my research since it allows for numerous journal articles on nursing and alienated health. The materials provided help to provide transparent information concerning how effective the psychotherapy is in eliminating the mental health conditions (Freeman et al., 2017). This database offers various journals and articles that provide crucial information that is needed to solve the PICO question.

When Narrowing Your Topic Of Interest To A PICO Clinical Question, What Terms Did You Use To Search The Evidence?

When narrowing my topic of interest on mental health conditions to form specific PICO question, I used various key terms that were easy to map in the database vocabulary. The main words that I used include psychotherapy and mental health conditions. These two terms were used to search the crucial information from the database that was used to solve the PICO question. The terms also played an essential role in the research since they help identify or select only the vital information that is required to answer the PICO question (Freeman et al., 2017). Various filters and limits such as year of publication had to be used together with the selected terms to ensure that only the appropriate information was identified. Some of

Were There Any Filters Or Limits You Used To Include Or Exclude Sets Of Results?

When searching for the most relevant literature that is required to support the evidence-based practice, it is essential to apply various filtering or limit strategies. Enforcing limits helps to narrow down the information within the database to ensure that we come up with the most effective results for the PICO question. In this study, I used various limits or filters that were applied in the database search results to ensure that the information provides high-level evidence for the PICO question. The limits and filters are used in various situations, such as when identifying the most recent information concerning the research topic. In this case, one has to restrict the available research article based on the year of publication (Storch et al., 2013). The limits are also used when trying to identify a specific type of research, such as journals or newspaper article. This type of limits is used when differentiating between primary and secondary research. Some of the restrictions applied when searching crucial information concerning the mental health topic include; first, the publication date, this limit was implemented in areas where there were too many results and also when retrieving the recent literature. Secondly, limiting by publication type, this type of limit helps to ensure that the research that is retrieved is based on a highly rigorous methodology and also reflects a high-level method. Thirdly, the peer-reviewed article this limit helps to ensure that the evidence gathered effectively addresses the PICO question by providing concrete details that are in line with the topic.

How Did You Determine If The References You Located Were Primary Or Secondary Research Articles?

The primary sources are considered to be the first-hand account on a specific topic while the secondary sources usually account for anything that is not a primary source such as the newspaper articles, and the published research. In this case, I was able to identify or determine if the references are either primary or secondary article by reviewing the information presented in the abstract. In primary reference, only the first-hand information or the original information is presented in the summary while for the secondary sources, the data presented in the abstract or summary is usually obtained from published research.

References

Cuijpers, P., Sijbrandij, M., Koole, S. L., Andersson, G., Beekman, A. T., & Reynolds III, C. F. (2013). The efficacy of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in treating depressive and anxiety disorders: A metaanalysis of direct comparisons. World Psychiatry, 12(2), 137-148. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20038

Dobson, K. S., & Dozois, D. J. (Eds.). (2019). Handbook of cognitive-behavioural therapies. Guilford Publications.

Freeman, D., Reeve, S., Robinson, A., Ehlers, A., Clark, D., Spanlang, B., & Slater, M. (2017). Virtual reality in the assessment, understanding, and treatment of mental health disorders. Psychological medicine, 47(14), 2393-2400. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329171700040X

Halfon, N., Larson, K., & Slusser, W. (2013). Associations between obesity and comorbid mental health, developmental, and physical health conditions in a nationally representative sample of US children aged 10 to 17. Academic Pediatrics, 13(1), 6-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2012.10.007

Storch, E. A., Arnold, E. B., Lewin, A. B., Nadeau, J. M., Jones, A. M., De Nadai, A. S., ... & Murphy, T. K. (2013). The effect of cognitive-behavioural therapy versus treatment as usual for anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorders: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(2), 132-142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2012.11.007

Wampold, B. E., & Imel, Z. E., (2015). The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work. Routledge.

Weisz, J. R., Ugueto, A. M., Cheron, D. M., & Herren, J. (2013). Evidence-based youth psychotherapy in the mental health ecosystem. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 42(2), 274-286. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2013.764824