These two posters have been selected from those presented at the 16th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine Medicine: “Interdisciplinary behavioral medicine: systems, network and interventions”, held in Glasgow in June 2021.
POSTERS
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EFFECTIVENESS OF TRANS-DIAGNOSTIC COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL TREATMENTS IN EMOTIONAL DISORDERS
Mariangela Cerasuolo, Priscilla Cecala, Morena Castagna, Sara Fiano, Giovambattista Lo Russo, Natalia Perotto & Francesca Splendori
Objectives: The “trans-diagnostic” approach to mental disorders is focused on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural dysfunctions underlying several psychopathological conditions. It has been recently introduced into clinical practice with the aim of overcoming limitations in classical nosography and in diagnosis-specific treatments. However, it is still unclear whether and to what extent such treatments have better outcomes when compared to classical diagnosis-specific approaches. The present review aims to analyse the clinical efficacy of cognitive-behavioural trans-diagnostic treatments in patients suffering from emotional disorders.
Method: The following bibliographic databases were searched: Pubmed, Google Scholar and Discovery Sapienza. The randomized clinical trials published from 2017 to 2020 and addressing the efficacy of the trans-diagnostic approach to emotional disorders were reviewed.
Results: The selected studies showed that the efficacy of trans-diagnostic approach in emotional disorders is higher when compared with classical treatments and that both trans-diagnostic and diagnosis-specific treatments are equally effective.
Discussion: The trans-diagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatments can be considered as an effective alternative to diagnosis-specific ones, especially when comorbidity between different emotional disorders is present.
CLINICAL CASE OF CORRADO
The case of a homosexual patient sent to a psychology service for depressive-anxious symptoms is described. The patient had adopted an avoidance coping and a passive-anassertive attitude towards his sexual orientation, especially due to the shame deriving from a self-stigma. He had a brother who was married with three children and died 3 years earlier. The trans-diagnostic framework of the clinical case leads to the identification of short, medium and long-term therapeutic objectives such as: immediate psychological support, and then, once the mood had improved, reduction self-stigma for HIV, internalized homophobia, and then the coping with social problems and avoidance behaviors. Recognizing that his avoidance behaviors have been learned in the family context, psychotherapy proceeded rapidly, especially since the patient has started making decisions in his favor and following his preference. Today he has moved to a new home where he lives happily, he also bought a new car and meets a man he has been dating for a few months.
Historical Archive
Vic Meyer, of Polish origin, was a British psychologist at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School of the University of London (now UCL Medical School) and is considered the “spiritual father” of clinical case formulation, an approach to understanding complex psychiatric problems using learning principles derived from experimental psychological research and idiographically adapted to the individual case to develop an effective intervention regimen.