The Appeal of Unvalidated Treatments
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Transcript The Appeal of Unvalidated Treatments
The Appeal of Unvalidated
Treatments
BY CAITLIN LABARBERA
ABA 553 ASSESSING AUTISM
INTERVENTIONS
Introduction
With the rise of autism and other developmental
disabilities there is a new claim for a cure around
every corner.
Introduction
With all these new “fad” treatments, we as
professionals need to be able to identify
interventions that are both validated and
plausible.
Validated Treatments
Scientifically Valid Treatments
Involve
Increasing skills in specific areas
Improving functioning in every day situations
Contain controlled studies
Consistent with previous knowledge
Treatments with solid scientific support:
Applied
Behavior Analysis
Psychotropic Medication
Unvalidated Treatments
Pseudoscientific Treatments
Interventions that are considered to have little
to no scientific basis
Appealing because they are advertised as
Cures
Fast and Easy
“Deeper” Benefits
Natural
How can you determine if a treatment is both
validated and plausible, or if it is just another
fad?
Tristram Smith gives us several key pointers on picking out
Scientifically Valid Treatments while weeding out
Pseudoscientific Interventions.
Cure
We found a cure…
Popular interventions that “found a cure” included:
Facilitated
Communication
Auditory Integration Training
Gentle Teaching
All were found to be infective and some proved to
create problems instead of eliminating them.
Important Sounding but Vague
Benefits
Important Sounding but Vague Benefits
Lack scientific evaluations
Lack controlled studies
Benefits are so vague that testing them
would be difficult if not impossible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JdDU0Ql8EI
Controlled vs. Uncontrolled Studies
ABA and Psychotropic Medication – Scientifically
rigorous and controlled studies
Unvalidated treatments – Make no distinction
between rigorous and nonrigorous studies
Uncontrolled
Lack objective measures
Megavitamin Therapies
Technology
Technology has extraordinary uses in science but
having technology in a treatment does not mean that
the treatment is ligament.
Is the technology used reliable and does it support
the study?
Criticisms of Validated Treatments
Criticism may be used to justify implementing their
own interventions
Using criticism to hide one of their own faults
“Criticisms of one treatment or its practitioners do not
constitute evidence for the effectiveness of another
treatment (Smith 2005) .”
Subjective Evidence
Unvalidated interventions tend to rely on
Testimonies
Case
from parents
studies
Surveys
Popularity
Longevity
These things cannot be substitute for a controlled
study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qR6aDkVjYY
Example: Diets – Eliminating Dairy and Wheat.
Is it really the diet?
Parents
desire to see gains
Protein deficiency
Spending more time with child
Deprivation – Motivation
Other environmental changes
Core Deficits
Once the deficit is corrected there will be global
improvements in functioning
Two believed deficits include:
The lack of ability to form reciprocal relationships
Problem in processing or sensory input
Proposing that changes in one behavior will by
itself lead to changes in other behaviors goes
against a large body of research on humans and
other organisms in both clinical and laboratory
settings (Detterman&Sternberg,1995).
Natural Therapies
“Natural Therapies”
Special
diets to eliminate food additives
Cut out wheat a dairy
Chelation therapy
Antifungal medications
Shunning vaccinations
“Natural” does not mean safe or effective.
Treatment Combinations
Treatments are often combined in hopes to
accelerate and maximize treatment
Some treatments encourage combinations
Megavitamins
Reality - combining treatments have no effect and
can even reduce effectiveness of treatments.
Experimenting
Implementing a new treatment
First,
make only one treatment change at a time
Second, Identify specific target behaviors
Use objective measures to obtain a baseline
Finally, monitor changes in the target behavior
on an on going basis with objective measures
obtained by raters who are blind to treatment.
• HYMAN AND LEVY (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbhkX2oBmJ
Y
What would be appealing?
How many red flags can you pick out?
Evaluating Treatments
Treatments that are both validated and plausible
Treatments that are Unvalidated and implausible
Reference
Jacobson, J. W., Foxx, R. M., & Mulick, J. A. (2005).
Controversial therapies for developmental
disabilities, fad, fashion, and science in professional
practice. Lawrence Erlbaum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6Svp81lPhQ