The article under review is about the PTSD therapy. Jakupcak and Tracy did a clinical research to establish the number of patients who drop out of posttraumatic stress disorder therapy. Jakupcak and Tracy (2013), argue that several people believe this kind of dropout can be greatly minimized by the trauma-focused therapy. The authors conducted the meta-analysis among the dropout of posttraumatic stress disorder in the clinical trials. Jakupcak and Tracy (2013) found out that the rate of dropout among the post-traumatic stress disorder patient was 18% though the number significantly varies with different studies. The authors argue that practices such as group modality and several clinical sessions which are not associated with the posttraumatic stress disorder are likely to increase the number of patients’ dropout. However, Jakupcak and Tracy (2013), agree that if the meta-analysis study was restricted to a direct comparison with regards to active therapy, then no cases of posttraumatic stress disorder patients’ dropout cases could be observed.
However, the authors admitted that the differences in posttraumatic stress disorder focus amid the similar studies, therapies were failed to predict the number of dropout patients. Otherwise, Jakupcak and Tracy (2013), agrees that the trauma-focused therapies are likely to lead to an increase in posttraumatic stress disorder patients’ dropout as compared to the present-centered therapy (PCT). This form of therapy was formerly designed to PTSD, though it is nowadays used as a research-supported intervention. Consequently, Jakupcak and Tracy (2013), claim that dropout cases differ substantially amid the active PTSD’s therapies; however, this difference is principally enhanced by various studies. However, the authors do note any significant differences with the active PTSD’s therapies in case they are directly compared with a similar research. The authors come to a universal consensus that the level of clinical traumatic focus is not likely to be the principal reason for the PTSD patient’s dropout, especially from the active PTSD therapy.
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Nonetheless, I might not fully agree with the authors because the PCT comparisons are likely to be the exception to the general pattern of PTSD therapy due to the restriction of the variability of focus in trauma amid the active therapy comparisons. Even other studies have established the need of carrying out the comparisons of trauma-avoidant therapy and the trauma-focused interventions like the PCT. The authors outline several sufficient PTSD therapies such as the prolonged exposure (PE), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and the cognitive processing therapy (CPT). Also, they point out other interventions are not right with the PTSD therapy. They found the average PTSD dropout during PTSD clinical therapy trials to be almost 20%. Furthermore, Jakupcak and Tracy (2013), several factors which they believe are likely to contribute towards the poor retention though they agree that it is very critical to establish if the psychotherapies greatly vary with the extent to which the PTSD treatments can be tolerated.
Also, the authors ought to have noted how the PTSD patients can sometimes begin the PTSD therapy and at the same time face the challenges of impractical or distressing thus leading to this kind of dropout or discontinuation. Jakupcak and Tracy (2013), go ahead noting the belief that people hold regarding exposure-based therapy of PTSD, which they agree that is likely to help such patients to retell their past traumatic events to the therapist. However, this form of therapy is sometimes poorly tolerated or accepted to PTSD patients. Therefore, the authors agree on the importance of determining the trauma-focused therapy, which would lead to higher numbers of PTSD patients’ dropout rates. The authors outline the way such dropout rates can be used by the clinical officers to establish the tolerability of the psychotherapies. Indeed, this study can be very useful to the clinical psychology, especially for the PTSD therapist in determining ways of helping such patients not to dropout.
References
Jakupcak, M and Tracy L. (2013). Meta-Analysis of Dropout in Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology In the public domain , Vol. 81, No. 3, 394–404. Retrieved at http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/ccp-a0031474.pdf
