Applying Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders in Community Settings: Retention, Outcome, and Clinical Considerations.

The efficacy, and to a lesser extent, effectiveness, of individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders has been demonstrated, but whether manualized treatments work in a group format in community settings is less established. We investigated the predictors of retention and outcome in 26 groups (11 Generalized Anxiety Disorder, 11 Panic, 4 Social Phobia groups), conducted for more than 10 years in a semirural community mental health center by 19 therapists. Members of the Anxiety Disorders Treatment Team delivered manualized group CBT treatments.

Traditional Knowledge of Western Herbal Medicine and Complex Systems Science.

Traditional knowledge of Western herbal medicine (WHM) supports experiential approaches to healing that have evolved over time. This is evident in the use of polyherb formulations comprised of crude plant parts, individually tailored to treat the cause of dysfunction and imbalance by addressing the whole person holistically. The challenge for WHM is to integrate science with traditional knowledge that is a foundation of the practice of WHM.

State-space grid analysis: applications for clinical whole systems complementary and alternative medicine research.

This paper presents state space grids (SSGs) as a mathematically less intensive methodology for process-oriented research beyond traditional qualitative and quantitative approaches in whole systems of complementary and alternative medicine (WS-CAM). SSGs, originally applied in developmental psychology research, offer a logical, flexible, and accessible tool for capturing emergent changes in the temporal dynamics of patient behaviors, manifestations of resilience, and outcomes. The SSG method generates a two-dimensional visualization and quantification of the inter-relationships between variables on a moment-to-moment basis.

A complex systems science perspective for whole systems of complementary and alternative medicine research.

Whole systems complementary and alternative medicine (WS-CAM) approaches share a basic worldview that embraces interconnectedness; emergent, non-linear outcomes to treatment that include both local and global changes in the human condition; a contextual view of human beings that are inseparable from and responsive to their environments; and interventions that are complex, synergistic, and interdependent. These fundamental beliefs and principles run counter to the assumptions of reductionism and conventional biomedical research methods that presuppose unidimensional simple causes and thus dismantle and individually test various interventions that comprise only single aspects of the WSCAM system. This paper will demonstrate the superior fit and practical advantages of using complex adaptive systems (CAS) and related modeling approaches to develop the scientific basis for WS-CAM.