K., in 1994 with his B.A. degree in Natural Sciences (Chemistry), which included a molecular modeling project with Dr. Jonathan Goodman. He was awarded his Ph.D. degree in 1998 for a thesis on Biocatalytic Preparation and Chemistry of Some Novel Cyanohydrin Systems, under the supervision of Professor Stan Roberts at the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool, U.K. A subsequent Brax Limited Research Fellowship at the University of Liverpool involved the design and synthesis of mass markers as part of a project to investigate the potential of mass spectrometry in genomics and proteomics. He is currently working in the intellectual property area.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to determine whether a manual-based psychodynamic treatment, labeled dynamic deconstructive psychotherapy (DDP), would be feasible and effective for individuals with co-occurring borderline personality disorder (BPD) and alcohol use disorder. Thirty participants were assessed every 3 months during a year of treatment with either DDP or treatment as usual (TAU) in the community. DDP participants showed statistically significant improvement in parasuicide behavior, alcohol misuse, institutional care, depression, dissociation, and core symptoms of BPD, and treatment retention was 67% to 73%. Although TAU participants received higher average treatment intensity, they showed only limited change during the same period. The results support the feasibility, tolerability, and efficacy of DDP for the co-occurring subgroup and highlight the need for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Do you want to use bibliotherapy with clients but wonder about the size and mechanism of effectiveness? The authors report a meta-analysis of 29 outcome studies of cognitive forms of bibliotherapy for depression. Seventeen studies with stronger research designs (pretest-posttest waiting list control group) yielded a respectable effect size of 0.77, considered the best estimate of effect size from this study. This result compares favorably with outcomes from individual psychotherapy. In light of the substantial positive effects associated with bibliotherapy for depression, the authors discuss clinically relevant questions related to the use of cognitive bibliotherapy. These include why practitioners might consider the use of this technique, which individuals can benefit from this approach, and how professionals can structure care.

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RESEARCH & EVALUATIONUnder New Zealand's radical state sector reforms, 'empowered' managers are held accountable in an arm's length way by politicians and control agencies through the use of clearly stated objectives and the availability of quality information about progress towards those objectives. However, empirical research indicates that this thermostatic metaphor embodies a number of paradoxes. A great deal of international attention has been paid to these reforms, but New Zealand has not discovered any ultimate resolution of the fundamental paradox of modern bureaucracy -the tendency for control to subvert purpose -and is now seeking a new 'balance' between these two managerial imperatives.

Patients having co-occurring borderline personality disorder and alcohol use disorders represent a common, but particularly severe and refractory subgroup. An individual, time-limited treatment, dynamic deconstructive psychotherapy (DDP), has been shown to be effective for this subgroup, but long-term outcomes are not known. Participants were recruited from a sample of 30 patients enrolled in a 12-month randomized controlled trial of DDP versus optimized community care (OCC). Outcomes were assessed after an additional 18 months of naturalistic follow-up. DDP participants received an equivalent amount of individual treatment and less group therapy than those receiving OCC, but demonstrated large, sustained treatment effects over a broad range of outcomes and achieved significantly greater improvement in core BPD symptoms, depression, parasuicide, and recreational drug use over the 30-month study. These results suggest that DDP is a cost-effective treatment that can lead to broad and sustained improvement for the dually diagnosed subgroup.

Performance measurement is an integral part of the New Zealand model of public management, as it is for many other modern systems of governmental administration. This article examines data on performance indicators for the policy advice function in five government departments, for the years 1992 to 2005, to determine which types of indicators are used, and to gauge the extent to which they offer meaningful information about the quality of policy advice. As part of its managerialist drive in the early 1990s, the government developed conceptual material designed to improve policy advice and management in departments. In general, our findings indicate that these initiatives did not lead over time to the further development of genuinely meaningful measures of the quality of policy advice, and that the indicators that have been used meet narrow managerial rather than broader political needs.