Critique Presentation
Transcript: DV1: PTSD symptoms Values: Score on Davidson Trauma Scale OXOO Dorrepaal, E., Thomaes, K., Smit, J. H., van Balkom, A. J., van Dyck, R., Veltman, D. J., & Draijer, N. (2010). Stabilizing group treatment for Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder related to childhood abuse based on psycho-education and cognitive behavioral therapy: A pilot study. Child abuse & neglect, 34(4), 284-288. DV5: Severity of Depression Values: Score on Beck Depression Inventory No ethical issues were discussed in this study, however it mentions that all participants signed written informed consent. The article also states that the Medical Ethics Board approved this study. The narrative states that the participants signed written informed consent, but does not state whether or not participants were verbally informed as well. Some of the participants had very poor educational backgrounds and may not have fully understood the study. The participants would have benefitted from being informed verbally along with the written consent to ensure full understanding by participants. The narrative also does not state what happened with the excluded participants. Though they did not meet the inclusion criteria, the excluded participants should still have been offered resources for treatment since they could not be included in the treatment for this particular study. Ethical Issues IV: Stabilizing Group Treatment Values: Before and after Descriptive Statistics The study does seem to imply causation, citing the Stabilizing Group Treatment as the catalyst for changes in Complex PTSD. To that end, this design is susceptible to all threats to internal validity. Since there is only one group, history and maturation are threats. Instrumentation is a threat where the follow up interviews are concerned, as interviewers could change over time and skew the results of all participants. Similarly, multiple exposure to tests could create familiarity that impacts results, so the threat of testing is present in this case. Regression to the mean, interaction and selection are all threats as there was no random assignment involved in group selection. The article accepts that individual treatment or medication could account for changing results, but cites that the changes from before treatment to after treatment are greater than changes after treatment to the follow up, when individuals would still presumably be effected by other treatment or medication. Design The statistical test used in this study was the t-test for paired differences. The t-tests were performed by measuring the dichotomies of either pre-test and post-test with the interval scores on the scales of all dependent variables and the dichotomy of pre-test and follow up with the interval scores on the scales of all dependent variables. The t-test for paired differences was used because it is comparing the same sample over time (before, after, and 6 months following). There were significant findings in all categories with the exception of a few: The pre-test and post-test for the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES) as well as the pre-test and follow up for the DES of the clients was not significant. The clients that completed the treatment showed no significant difference on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) between pre-test and follow-up. The rest of the data was found to be significant as indicated by p values far below .05. It would be interesting to see what the p values would be for all areas when comparing post-test to follow up. It would appear that these particular results would not be significant, and therefore, may not have been included because of that fact. Methodology Statistics Reliability and Validity Operationalization DV6: Complex PTSD Values: Present, absent based on interviews Since the data in this study is continuous, the main statistics used were mean and standard deviation. These statistics were found on pages 286 and 287 in the article. The data was discussed both in the narrative and on Table 2 in the article. Some of the interesting statistics included the fact that 75% of adults who suffered abuse in childhood also suffered abuse as adults. Though this was high, there was an expectation that it would be even higher. Sexual abuse started at a mean of age 7yrs and physical abuse began at a mean age of 6yrs. Since these were both means, this tells us that the abuse started even earlier for some of the victims. It is also interesting that the pre & post-test scores are compared as well as the pre-test & follow-up scores. However, the post-test and follow-up scores were not compared. When looking over the data, there are consistent decreases in scores from the pre-test to post-test and from the pre-test to follow-up. The scores from post-test to follow-up do not have a consistent decrease in score in all areas. Measurement Results and Discussion For this study, psychopathology was operationalized by Borderline symptoms, Dissociative symptoms, general symptoms and depression.
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