The Empirical Support of Neurotherapy

Abstract

Editorial offers constructive criticism on a paper published in the 'Behavior Therapist', by Lohr, Meunier, Parker, and Kline (2001), on applying standards for assessing the efficacy of neurotherapy for psychological disorders to studies published prior to 1999. The authors conclude that the studies they have reviewed are generally 'limited by the use of outcome measures that have questionable psychological and ecological validity, and 'the experimental control conditions are sufficiently weak that criteria for efficacious treatment' are not met. This paper contains many important points that neurotherapists need to take to heart in considering research design. Particularly pertinent are suggestions for future research, which include discussion of controls, wait list controls, and component comparisons such as comparison of augmentation feedback with suppression feedback. The editorial strongly endorses this continuing development of research standards. This effort will aid authors in research design and reporting, and provide improved criteria for peer review and constructive criticism of submitted manuscripts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)