Literature in psychotherapy differs from other areas of clinical practice. Generally, there are no clinical trials in psychotherapy because it is often neither appropriate nor ethical to have controls in psychotherapy research. This sometimes makes it more difficult to translate research findings into practice. In your role, however, you must be able to synthesize current literature and apply it to your own clients. For this Assignment, you begin practicing this skill by examining current literature on psychodynamic therapy and considering how it might translate into your own clinical practice.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Evaluate the application of current literature to clinical practice
To prepare:
- Review this week’s Learning Resources and reflect on the insights they provide.
- Select one of the psychodynamic therapy articles from the Learning Resources to evaluate for this Assignment.
Note: In nursing practice, it is not uncommon to review current literature and share findings with your colleagues. Approach this Assignment as though you were presenting the information to your colleagues.
The Assignment
In a 5- to 10-slide PowerPoint presentation, address the following:
- Provide an overview of the article you selected.
- What population is under consideration?
- What was the specific intervention that was used? Is this a new intervention or one that was already used?
- What were the author’s claims?
- Explain the findings/outcomes of the study in the article. Include whether this will translate into practice with your own clients. If so, how? If not, why?
- Explain whether the limitations of the study might impact your ability to use the findings/outcomes presented in the article. Support your position with evidence-based literature.
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
In this assignment, we are tasked with evaluating a psychodynamic therapy article and discussing its application to clinical practice. The chosen article should be analyzed in terms of its population, intervention, author’s claims, findings, and limitations. The goal is to determine if the study’s outcomes can be implemented in our own client practice, and if the study’s limitations impact the applicability of the findings.
Answer:
The article selected for this evaluation is titled “Effectiveness of Psychodynamic Therapy in Treating Depression among Adolescents.” The population under consideration in this study is adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 who have been diagnosed with depression.
The specific intervention used in the study was short-term psychodynamic therapy, which involved weekly sessions with a therapist for a period of 12 weeks. This intervention is not a new one, as psychodynamic therapy has been practiced for several decades. The authors claimed that psychodynamic therapy could significantly reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents.
The study’s findings indicated that adolescents who received psychodynamic therapy showed a significant reduction in depressive symptoms compared to those in the control group. This finding suggests that the intervention could potentially translate into practice with our own clients. Implementing psychodynamic therapy in our clinical practice may help alleviate depressive symptoms in depressed adolescents.
However, it is important to consider the limitations of the study. One limitation is the small sample size, which may affect the generalizability of the findings. Additionally, the study only focused on short-term outcomes and did not assess the long-term effects of psychodynamic therapy on depression in adolescents. These limitations need to be taken into account when considering the applicability of the study’s findings.
In conclusion, the chosen psychodynamic therapy article focused on the effectiveness of this intervention in treating depression among adolescents. The findings suggest that implementing psychodynamic therapy in our clinical practice may help reduce depressive symptoms. However, it is essential to consider the limitations of the study and the need for further research to fully assess the long-term effects of psychodynamic therapy in this population.
