Psychology research paper: effectiveness of psychotherapy treatment of Marijuana

In order to answer the research question it is important to have background information on the use of psychological techniques in the treatment of the anxiety. Moreover, the findings of researches that has been conducted on the effect of the use of cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT) to reduce anxiety among the employees it is important for narrowing down the scope of the behaviors that have been found to be effective. It is also important to know that for a therapy to be effective it must be acceptable by the patients and it must also be affordable. Finally, the therapy should not consume a lot of time and should ensure that the patience abstain from using the drug.

Article Review

The research by Hunter purposed at comparing the acceptance and effectiveness of using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treating depression associated with the use of substances such as alcohol and marijuana. In particular, the researcher chose a sample of 73 people and subjected some of them to CBT while the others were treated using other methods (Hunter, Watkins, Hepner, Paddock, Ewing, Osilla, & Perry, 2012). Both groups were subjected to 18 therapies that lasted for two hours. The sessions focused on exploration of the patient’s thoughts, activities and interactions with people. Consequently, the researchers sought to determine which of the two alternatives would be the best to adopt based on efficacy, affordability and applicability in different scenarios involving outpatients who led busy lives. Therefore, the hypothesis of the research was CBT was more acceptable and effective in addressing depression associated with substance abuse.

The researchers found out that group CBT was more acceptable to the majority of the participants. In particular, they claimed that the main reason was that CBT only takes a few hours thus they could access it as outpatients for three times a week. In addition, the researchers found out that CBT was more applicable in most rehabilitation and health centers since it was not as expensive as psychopharmacological treatments. Finally, the researchers noted that for the treatment to be effective some follow up care should be included in the therapy. However, the research by Hunter used a small sample size that might limit the repeatability of the trial. In addition, the researchers offered monetary incentives to the participants to encourage their frequent attendance. Finally, the research suffered from the ability of the researchers to conduct conclusive drug tests for long to determine the reduction in anxiety was a result of abstinence or reduced use of the substance.

Diamond et al conducted the research to determine which of the five therapy models was most suitable for the treatment of marijuana disorder among the adolescents. The five models included multi-dimensional family therapy- MDFT, adolescent community reinforcement approach (ACRA), motivational enhancement therapy (MET), CBT and a combination of CBT and MET (Diamond, Godley, Liddle, Sampl, Webb, Tims, & Meyers, 2002). In particular, the researchers purposed to find the most appropriate method that they could be used in a youth center. Consequently, the technique had to be affordable, take little time and produce successful results within the shortest time. Therefore, the hypothesis of the research was that the use of CBT was the most appropriate psychotherapy to address marijuana disorders among the youth.

The researchers found out that MDFT was the most affordable therapy. In addition, it was also the least effective method since it involved substantial use of the parents who were nonprofessionals. ACRA produced satisfactory results that was less effective than both MET and CBT. However, it was more affordable than either of the two. Additionally, the researchers found out that CBT was more affordable than MET as well as the combination the two techniques. Moreover, the researchers discovered the portion of the sample that was subjected to CBT and MET was less likely to result back to the abuse of marijuana than when the other techniques were used. However, CBT was more affordable than MET and ACRA since it did not involve the use of incentives.

Copelad et al carried out a randomized control trial to determine the effectiveness of the various types of CBT and Delayed treatment control (DTC). The empirical study involved random selection of the 229 participants and subjecting them to either six sessions of CBT, one session of CBT or DTC (Copeland, Swift, Roffman, & Stephens, 2001). Consequently, the researchers concentrated on measuring the efficacy of the three psychotherapy methods and not the cost or the time required for the treatment. The focus of the research was to determine which therapy could lead to the highest cases of abstinence. Besides, the researchers sought to investigate if therapists played a significant role in determining the effectiveness of the therapy. The hypothesis of the research was that CBT was more effective than other psychotherapy techniques in addressing the use of marijuana disorders.

The researchers found out that both the DTC and CBT were acceptable to the sample population. However, there was a significant difference in the efficacy of DTC and CBT. In particular, CBT was found to be more effective since it was more likely to lead to abstinence to the use of marijuana. Moreover, the research revealed that although both forms of CBT were effective, 6CBT produced better results than the 1CBT. Finally, the researchers discovered that the therapists did not have significant impact on the effectiveness of the CBT.

Analysis of the Articles

One of the main limitations encountered by Hunter and his fellow researchers was that they used a small sample that could reduce the accuracy of the findings and limit its applicability to the real world. In addition, the researchers did not know for certainty if the sample patients had reduced using the substance or if they had completely abstained. The research by Diamond et al suffered from several limitations that could have resulted in less precise findings. Moreover, the researchers failed to homogenize the sample since not all the participants had similar levels of addiction of marijuana related disorders. In addition, the use of incentives in the ACRA and MET studies could have encouraged the participants to respond well to the therapy which may have compromised the repeatability of the findings with different incentives.

The main weakness identified with the research by Hunter et al is the method of selection of the participants that underwent the psychotherapy techniques. Consequently, the samples that were subjected to different techniques were no homogenized that could have affected the accuracy of the results. In addition, the researchers failed to take into account other forms of CBT such as the 12CBT thus the research may be considered as incomplete.

The three researches are similar in the sense that they both come up to the same conclusive results. In particular, the researches identify CBT as the most effective psychotherapy technique in addressing the problem of marijuana disorders. In addition, all the three researches are similar in that they studied the use of psychotherapy in the treatment of cannabis related disorders. Moreover, in order for the researchers to determine the most effective techniques, they compared CBT with other techniques such as the MET, ACRA, DTC and MDFT. It is also interesting to note that the researches had some common similarities in the limitations that they suffered that could have affected their precision. A case in point, the research by Diamond et al and Copilad et al both suffered from poor selection criteria since the researchers only selected the participants randomly for the different therapies under consideration. Consequently, the research could have been less accurate since the researchers could have harmonized the samples to ensure that the only variable in the treatment procedures that could have affected the findings was the technique chosen. In addition, none of the researchers studied co-occurring behaviors such as marijuana use in combination with other drugs such as alcohol or cocaine.

However, the researches differed in several ways. For instance, in the study by Hunter et al, the participants of the research were 73 whereas in the study by Copelad were 229. In addition, the therapies that CBT was compared with were different with the three studies. In particular, in the study by Copelad, 6CBT and 1CBT were compared with DTC. Similarly, in the study by Hunter CBT was compared with psychopharmacological therapies. In the study by Diamond, CBT was compared with MDFT, ACRA, MET and a combination of CBT and MET. Consequently, the study by Diamond differed from the others since it included the combination of CBT and other therapy simultaneously. The trial by Copelad unlike others only pursued to find out the most effective therapy but did not consider its acceptability by the patients. In addition, only the trial by Diamond considered MDFT, ACRA and MET. On the other hand, the trial by Copelad studied the effectiveness of CBT relative to DTC.

Hypothesis

From the three researches, it is clear that the most effective psychotherapy is the CBT. From the analysis of the findings of Hunter et al, it is obvious that CBT was most acceptable than psychopharmacological treatment. In psychotherapy, acceptance of the treatment by the patient has been found to be one of the key factors that influence its success rates. In addition, the study by Diamond came up with similar findings where CBT was more acceptable than MET, ACRA, MFDT or a combination of CBT with other therapies. It is also interesting to note that all the researches focus on group CBT and not individual therapy. The use of incentives was found to be effective in encouraging the patients to follow through the therapy as evidenced by the research by Diamond et al and Hunter et al. For example, in the study of Hunter et al, it revealed that the use of incentives correlates with the patients following through the therapy successfully since the P-value was greater than 0.005 which is indicative of a strong causality between the two variables under study. Therefore, for the measures to be effective in controlling the use of marijuana it should include the use of incentives that would increase its efficacy.

In addition, the three researches revealed that 6CBT was more effective than 1CBT, this is indicative for the fact that the more the sessions of the group CBT therapy then the more successful the psychotherapy is likely to be. My hypothesis is for the psychotherapy to be adequate to address the likely increase in the cases of cannabis disorders, it should include at least six sessions of group CBT.

References

Copeland, J., Swift, W., Roffman, R., & Stephens, R. (2001). A randomized controlled trial of brief cognitive–behavioral interventions for cannabis use disorder. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 21(2), 55-64.

Diamond, G., Godley, S. H., Liddle, H. A., Sampl, S., Webb, C., Tims, F. M., & Meyers, R. (2002). Five outpatient treatment models for adolescent marijuana use: a description of the Cannabis Youth Treatment Interventions. Addiction, 97(s1), 70-83.

Hunter, S. B., Watkins, K. E., Hepner, K. A., Paddock, S. M., Ewing, B. A., Osilla, K. C., & Perry, S. (2012). Treating depression and substance use: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 43(2), 137-151.