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how effective is group therapy?

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  • 09-05-2011 8:38pm
    #1
    unclejunior
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 265 ✭✭


    a guy i know has started going to group therapy because his mother is aparently an alcoholic. the guy is fairly depressed. i was just wondering does group therapy help people and is it far more effective than using medication to cope with, mental instabiliy or depression?


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    #2
    psycjay
    Registered Users Posts: 133 ✭✭psycjay


    There are lots of different forms of therapy, lots of different group therapies, lots of different kinds of medication and lot's of different kinds of mental distress.

    What I am getting at it is that there are no general rules of thumb regarding the efficacy of therapy vs medication for the treatment of mental distress.

    There are LOTs of specific studies which has looks at the efficacy of different types of therapies for different problems, where some have compared outcomes to that of medication, or placebo controls etc.

    For example, a task force set up by the APA in 1995 looked at the effectiveness of different forms of therapy for different problems. They found that group based CBT was a well established treatment for social phobia, based on a number of outcome studies.

    BTW: This is just my academic opinion about your question, not advice regarding your friend. If your friend is concerned about his treatment then he should speak to a professional.


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