Distinguishing between treatment efficacy and effectiveness in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Implications for contentious therapies

Abstract

Research psychologists often complain that practitioners disregard research evidence whilst practitioners sometimes accuse researchers of failing to produce evidence with sufficient ecological validity. We discuss the tension that thus arises using the specific illustrative examples of two treatment methods for post-traumatic stress disorder: eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing and exposure-based interventions. We discuss the contextual reasons for the success or failure of particular treatment models that are often only tangentially related to the theoretical underpinnings of the models. We discuss what might be learnt from these debates and develop recommendations for future research.

Keywords:

• eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing
• post-traumatic stress disorder
• treatment efficacy
• treatment effectiveness
• qualitative

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton.