Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit (I-BMS) Interventions for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Review of the Outcome Literature

ABSTRACT

Background: A growing interest in integrative body-mind-spirit (I-BMS) approaches to treatment of PTSD has resulted in a significant increase in related research. Method: This study conducted a synthesized review of randomized controlled trials of I-BMS treatments for PTSD, yielding thirteen studies that included: mindfulness/meditation (7), yoga (3), acupuncture (1), spiritually-based intervention (1), and relaxation (1) from 2004–2015. The study used a modified Delphi List (mDL) and the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse (CEBC) to evaluate study rigor and level of research support for each practice. Results: Overall, I-BMS interventions demonstrated positive outcomes. Based on an mDL range between 0 and 7, scores were: 6 for meditation/mindfulness, 5.67 for yoga, 7 for acupuncture, 3 for spiritually-based intervention, and 4.5 for relaxation training. All interventions were recommended as practices with Promising Research Evidence (Level 3). Effect sizes (d) ranged from .51 to 1.88 for relaxation, .38 to 1.02 for spiritual, .31 to 1.4 for acupuncture, .1 to 1.54 for yoga and .2 to 1.53 for mindfulness meditation. Discussion: This study identified acupuncture, meditation, and yoga as high-quality alternative therapeutic practices for PTSD with promising evidence as effective and safe approaches. Future studies should assess long-term effects to further elevate the level of research support.     

The market for (Ir)reproducible econometrics

Context: As the volume and complexity of research have increased, the amount of time spent on Institutional Review Board (IRB) review has decreased. The complexity of research has expanded, requiring increasingly specialized knowledge to review it. Dilemma: Under the current system, increasing numbers of research studies requiring expertise in ethics, new technologies or diverse study designs place a substantial burden upon local IRBs and often result in substantial variability among their reviews. This lack of uniformity in the review process creates uneven human subjects’ protection thus undermining the intent of the Common Rule. Objectives: To outline a scenario for expert centralized IRB review via implementation of a national virtual IRB review system overseen by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). Conclusions: The complicated ethical issues and science involved in much of current research warrant an expert review panel. Centralized review would enable expert review specific to the research at hand, ensure consistency in human subjects protection, reduce the burden on local IRBs, and may reduce time spent obtaining approval. A centralized virtual system would allow IRB members to remain at their institutions while providing unprecedented expert review through currently available technology, and make information regarding monitoring and adverse event reporting available online in real-time.     

The Relevance of the Structural Approach to Group Work with Immigrant and Refugee Women

ABSTRACT

This article applies a structural approach to social work with immigrants and refugees. Specifically, the use of structural principles and procedures is illustrated in work with an Hispanic Women's Support Group.     

Abstracts of theses,July 1955: Smith College School for Social Work

Abstract

This commentary amplifies the dynamic strategies in Message in a Bottleto consider in working with clients who seek to augment psychotherapy with psychopharmacologic treatment. This commentary also addresses how to evaluate and enhance psychotherapy outcome independent of medications and reviews some of the factors which contribute to positive treatment outcome. In order for clinicians to resist the pervasive colonizing effects of the medical model, this commentary reevaluates some of the claims that medications seem to promise and reinforces data which demonstrate that psychotherapy remains a safe and effective first-line treatment.     

Complementary properties of binary relations

After defining the complementary relation R of a binary relation R on a set X, this paper constructs the binary relation C (is a complementary property of) on the set P of nine well known elementary properties that R might possess. It deduces some theorems about C; especially that symmetry is the only one of these possible properties of R on X that is possessed by C on P. The set P may be enlarged to contain other elementary properties of R on X without changing the truth of these theorems, when the symbols of sets are properly modified. Finally, the paper discusses the desirability of a general theory of elementary properties of binary relations for the further development of statistical decision theory.     

The “Socialization of Elderly Hospitalization” in China: Development,Problems, and Solutions

ABSTRACT

Objectives to analyze the development of the elderly patients with chronic diseases and to make some suggestions for the elderly social hospitalization. Methods By using yearbook data and theoretical analyses, the paper respectively presents the problems and furthermore solutions of China's elderly services. Results The elderly patients with chronic illnesses have formed a new group, and the phenomenon of “socialization of elderly hospitalization” has become a major social risk. Discussions China needs to promote the idea of “long-term care” in elderly social security, establishing long-term care insurance and fostering a private, professional elderly service system.     

Personal prelude to pandemic 2020

ABSTRACT

This essay is a personal story, that also serves as my prelude to pandemic 2020, as well as my decision to issue a June 2020 Call for Papers on Group Work Stories About Pandemic 2020, that this Issue of the Journal launches.     

Group Work vs. Casework in a Group: Principles and Implications for Teaching and Practice

SUMMARY

This paper examines the differences between group work and casework in a group. Examples of both are used to illustrate the distinction. Steps that are essential to maximize the value and benefits of the small group and to ensure that group work takes place are described and discussed.     

Methodology for Discovering and Teaching Countertransference Toward Elderly Clients

Abstract

This article will describe a method that has been effective in helping students, paraprofessional counselors as well as mental health professionals identify countertransference reactions in themselves. It offers instructors and clinical supervisors a way to teach about countertransference toward elderly clients. This technique can be utilized in a variety of work settings such as classrooms, mental health clinics, multi-purpose centers for older adults and private practice.     

The story of Lucy: lessons learned,lessons taught

ABSTRACT

This article provides an extended case example highlighting the value of a supportive approach to practice, in addition to the importance of holding a psychodynamic developmental frame of reference. Concepts of repetition compulsion, the holding environment, and object constancy are applied to the clinical material. The case is underscored for its value as a teaching tool.     

Caregivers' Coping and Self-Forgiveness After the Death of a Care-Receiver

ABSTRACT

This study explores the relationship of self-forgiveness with adaptive coping and nonadaptive coping. This study addresses self-forgiveness as part of the grieving process of Alzheimer's disease caregivers. One hundred and thirty-three caregivers who had recently lost a loved one were surveyed. The bivariate analysis revealed a significant relationship between self-forgiveness and adaptive coping and non-adaptive coping. Furthermore, stepwise regression models computed for the study variables revealed that adaptive coping and non-adaptive coping were statistically significant in explaining the variation in self-forgiveness. Based on these findings, future directions in research are explored.     

A Worker's Personal Grief and Its Impact on Processing a Group's Termination

SUMMARY

This article deals with a worker struggling with a personal loss while simultaneously helping her group with the termination of a valued long term member. The focus is on the parallel grieving process and the resistance to mourning.     

Extreme Copulas and the Comparison of Ordered Lists

We introduce two extreme methods to pairwisely compare ordered lists of the same length, viz. the comonotonic and the countermonotonic comparison method, and show that these methods are, respectively, related to the copula T _M (the minimum operator) and the Ł ukasiewicz copula T _L used to join marginal cumulative distribution functions into bivariate cumulative distribution functions. Given a collection of ordered lists of the same length, we generate by means of T _M and T _L two probabilistic relations Q ^M and Q ^L and identify their type of transitivity. Finally, it is shown that any probabilistic relation with rational elements on a 3-dimensional space of alternatives which possesses one of these types of transitivity, can be generated by three ordered lists and at least one of the two extreme comparison methods.     

A Commentary on David Drucker's “Ask a Silly Question,Get a Silly Answer

ABSTRACT

This commentary views Drucker's paper as an example of practitioner research aimed both at developing a stronger evidence base for the profession, and promoting a form of thinking useful to Western social work practice. Links are also drawn between the ideas expressed in “Ask a Silly Question” and participatory social work in several non-Western parts of the world.     

The Use of a Mutual Aid Group with Home Attendants

SUMMARY

This article reflects the experience of six home attendants whose clients were individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's and other related dementias. It examines how they used a mutual aid group to discuss the stresses, professional and personal problems that resulted from their work.     

The Materiality of Color

ABSTRACT

This article presents a theory of the materiality of color which derives in part from the non-denotative approach to signification opened by the Symbolist poets' experimentation with the sensory qualities of language. Its specific focus is on the connotative power of various uses of indigo.     

In Their Own Words: Elements of Youth Empowerment in Spain

Abstract

The aim of the HEBE¹ project, developed jointly by four universities, is to analyze the spaces, moments and processes involved in the empowerment of young people in order to formulate socio-educational programmes that help them and improve their lives. The articulation of the project focuses on different lines of work and action, one of which is to identify and analyze the spaces in which the empowerment of youth occurs. This article delves into the elements involved in youth empowerment by using a questionnaire administered to young people from Catalonia between the ages of 19 and 25 (n?=?1067). This article presents the results obtained for these young people based on their level of empowerment and the elements that characterize them.     

Interpreting the Countertransference Erection

Abstract

This essay examines the interrelationship between internal experience of therapists and that of their clients in the conduct of psychotherapy. The position taken is that of relational theory, and clinical case material is used to illustrate the discussion.     

Statistics and the Public Sphere. Numbers and the People in Modern Britain,c. 1800–2000

Susan Elizabeth Ramírez, The World Upside Down. Cross‐Cultural Contact and Conflict in Sixteenth‐Century Peru (1996), vii + 234 (Stanford University Press, Stanford, £45.00).

Biography Database, 1680–1830: Personal Edition (1997; a rerelease of the 1995 institutional edition with updated software) (Romulus Press Ltd with the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 91.83/$125).

Martin Hewitt, The Emergence of Stability in the Industrial City: Manchester, 1832–67 (1996), ix + 335 (Scolar Press, Aldershot, £45.00/$74.95).

Louise Young, Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (1998), xiii + 487 (University of California Press, Berkeley, £35.00/$45.00).

Kevin Passmore, From Liberalism to Fascism: The Right in a French Province, 1928–1939 (1997), xvii + 333 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, £40.00/$59.95).