Rebooting Psychotherapy Research and Practice to Reduce the Burden of Mental Illness

Abstract

Psychological interventions to treat mental health issues have developed remarkably in the past few decades. Yet this progress often neglects a central goal-namely, to reduce the burden of mental illness and related conditions. The need for psychological services is enormous, and only a small proportion of individuals in need actually receive treatment. Individual psychotherapy, the dominant model of treatment delivery, is not likely to be able to meet this need. Despite advances, mental health professionals are not likely to reduce the prevalence, incidence, and burden of mental illness without a major shift in intervention research and clinical practice. A portfolio of models of delivery will be needed. We illustrate various models of delivery to convey opportunities provided by technology, special settings and nontraditional service providers, self-help interventions, and the media.

Web‐based integrated bipolar parenting intervention for parents with bipolar disorder: a randomised controlled pilot trial

“…Online interventions have potential to offer destigmatising support at times and in locations convenient to parents, at low cost (Kazdin & Blase, 2011). Supported online psychological interventions can improve clinical outcomes in mothers with postnatal depression (Kaplan, Solomon, Salzer, & Brusilovskiy, 2014; O'Mahen et al., 2014) and parenting in parents with and without mental health problems (Love et al., 2016; Sanders, Baker, & Turner, 2012; Sanders, Dittman, Farruggia, & Keown, 2014).…”

Brightening the Day With Flashes of Positive Mental Imagery: A Case Study of an Individual With Depression

“…While increasing the efficacy and accessibility of existing treatments will yield benefits, the prevalence of the disorder means that new kinds of treatment approaches that can be easily and efficiently “scaled up” are needed (cf. Kazdin & Blase, 2011). One way to develop more efficient and scalable treatments may be via identifying mechanisms involved in the maintenance of a disorder and developing more direct ways to target these (Holmes, Craske, & Graybiel, 2014).…”

The influence of cognitive control training on stress reactivity and rumination in response to a lab stressor and naturalistic stress

“…Training cognitive control thus holds the potential to improve emotion regulation in the wake of stress as increased cognitive control might reduce the extent to which subjects respond to a stressful event with rumination, increasing resilience to depression. This would fit the recent plea to invest in preventive programs and innovative treatment delivery methods to increase the quality of mental 6 health care in order to reduce the burden of mental illness (Kazdin & Blase, 2011). Hence, a main goal of this study is to explore whether CCT can be used to increase stress resilience in an at-risk population.…”