> Rick Adams wrote:
>
> "Some forms of alternative medicine don't lend themselves well
> to a rigid double-blind research approach (to use a psychological
> anology, try designing a double blind experiment to demonstrate
> the efficacy of cognitive therapy...
Nothing like a little summer-time challenge. OK, here goes.
Design an equally-credible placebo treatment. This isn't as difficult
as it seems, as people are prepared to believe almost anything as
psychotherapy (e.g. repressed memory therapy). This has been done. For
example, Paul & Shannon (1966), in a classic study, designed an
attention-placebo treatment in which subjects were given a supposed
"fast-acting tranquillizer" (placebo) and told to work at a supposed
"very stressful task". An important requirement would be to determine,
post-hoc, whether the fake treatment was, in fact, equally credible.
Or, you could just use standard psychodynamic therapy as a credible
all-purpose placebo therapy.
Randomly assign subjects to either placebo therapy or cognitive
therapy. So far, we have single-blind (subjects don't know which is
the placebo). To make it double blind, have the outcome measures
taken by independent interviewers or observers who don't know which
treatment has been applied to which subjects. The interviewers would
have to be cautioned not to ask any questions which could reveal which
treatment the subjects had received, but this shouldn't be a problem.
Bingo, double-blind study. QED.
-Stephen
Reference
Paul, G., & Shannon, D. (1966). Treatment of anxiety through
systematic desensitization in therapy groups. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 71, 124--135.
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
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