The key to this question is to discuss how the treatment works and the strengths and limitations of the treatment.  You do not need to necessarily discuss effectiveness. However, when including research, the research you will use is most likely going to be about the aetiology of the disorder (e.g. showing that serotonin is the origin of the disorder and thus, SSRIs make sense) or about the effectiveness of the treatment.  Only research on effectiveness is listed below.  For research on aetiology, please see the aetiology study guide.

Terms/theories: Biomedical approach, reuptake, remission, relapse, antagonist, discontinutation syndrome, iatrogenic effects

Research: Anorexia: Holtcamp (1995); Norris et al (2011); Dennis et al (2006)  Depression: Geddes et al (2003); Elkin et al (1989); Kirsch and Sapirstein (1998); Turner et al (2008); Riggs et al (2007); PTSD: Davidson et al (2001); Mithoefer et al (2011)

Critical thinking: The decrease in institutionalization, ease of administration, relatively quick results, reductionist vs holistic approaches to treatment, problems with discontinuation syndrome, side effects, cause and effect relationships

Different command terms: Evaluate, Contrast one biological with one psychological treatment of disorders.

The key to this question is to discuss how the treatment works and the strengths and limitations of the treatment.  You do not need to necessarily discuss effectiveness. However, when including research, the research you will use is most likely going to be about the aetiology of the disorder (e.g. showing that serotonin is the origin of the disorder and thus, SSRIs make sense) or about the effectiveness of the treatment.  Only research on effectiveness is listed below.  For research on aetiology, please see the aetiology study guide.

Terms/theories: CBT, cognitive restructuring, Integrative Testimonial Therapy, family systems therapy, enmeshment, Virtual Reality Therapy

Research: Anorexia: Pike et al (2003); Fairburn et al (2015); Robin et al (1999); Paulson-Karlsson et al (2009); Foerde et al (2015) Depression: Cuijpers et al (2011); Elkin et al (1989); Riggs et al (2007), Segal et al (2010); PTSD: Weine (1998); Knaevelsrud et al (2014); Alghamdi et al (2014); Difede and Hoffman (2002), Rizzo et al (2012), Botella et al (2015).

Critical thinking: Importance of combining drug treatment and psychotherapy; measuring relapse rates; reductionist vs holistic approach to therapy; time taken to show improvement; cross-cultural effectiveness, if the disorder is actually the result of biological factors, the therapy is not helpful in the long-term.

Different command terms: Evaluate, Contrast one psychological with one biological treatment of disorders.

Terms/theories: etic vs emic approaches, cross-cultural psychotherapy, indigenous psychotherapy,

Research: Ando et al (2009); Zhang et al (2002); Marian and Neisser (2000); Leong and Kalibatseva (2011) report on barriers to care; Griner and Smith (2006); Dein and Sembhi (2001).

Critical thinking: value and limitations of an emic or etic approach, role of cultural dimensions, role of stereotyping, lack of cross-cultural validity, the difficulties of studying the effectiveness of therapy cross-culturally

Different command terms: Evaluate research on...

Terms/theories: Relapse, remission, spontaneous remission, reporting bias, process vs outcome studies, meta-analysis, publication bias

Research: The research on effectiveness is listed above in questions 1 and 2.

Critical thinking: Difficulties in evaluating the effectiveness of treatment: outcome vs process, the question of spontaneous remission, assumes the validity of the diagnosis, inability to control extraneous variables, difficult to compare clients as the degree of the disorder is not the same, ethical considerations in carrying out placebo testing.

Different command terms: Evaluate research on...

Terms/theories: research methods = interviews, observations, experiments, correlational studies, and case studies.

Research: Any research could be used. Experiments: Elkin et al (1989), Zhang et al (2002), Holtcamp et al (2005); Case study: Dein and Sembhi (2001)

Critical thinking: Strengths and limitations of research methods.  Problems of operationalization.  The ability to draw conclusions about cause and effect.

Different command terms: Evaluate, contrast

Terms/theories: Ethical considerations include: informed consent, anonymity, right to withdraw, deception, undue stress or harm, and debriefing. The use of placebos is highly relevant for this question.

Research: Any research could be used to discuss ethical considerations.

Critical thinking: Why is deception used; the concerns about using real patients with psychological disorders, the importance of keeping information anonymous, the effect of right to withdraw on research (attrition rates).

Different command terms: This question may only be asked as a discuss question.

Terms/theories: Confidentiality (not anonymity!), informed consent, deception, the therapist-client relationship, termination of therapy, reflexivity

Research: To address this question, you may want to consider the many studies of people's therapy that were used for the effectiveness of the treatment.  In these cases, confidentiality, the use of placebos, and informed consent could be discussed.  This could also include therapists who documented their clients' sessions and used them to generate theory - for example, Aaron Beck and even Sigmund Freud. As reflexivity may be discussed with regard to whether the therapy is working or should be discontinued, research on the validity of diagnosis could be used to frame the problem.  Finally, one of the keys to ethical treatment is respect for all clients.  Research on labeling, stereotyping and the importance of culturally relevant treatment could all apply here.

Critical thinking: Informed consent: consent to receiving therapy or if therapy is being used for research purposes; Confidentiality:  limits to confidentiality, the difficulties of confidentiality in group therapy;  Deception: use of placebos in treatment; undue stress or harm: the nature of the relationship between the therapist and the client, the decision to terminate treatment if there is no improvement, justice, or treating individuals equitably and fostering fairness and equality.

Different command terms: This question may only be asked as a discuss question.