A. Bergmark: Specific and contextual treatment mechanisms. The âDodo bird verdictâ â i.e. the general equivalence of outcomes from different modalities.
A. Bergmark:
Specific and contextual treatment mechanisms The “Dodo bird verdict” – i.e. the general equivalence of outcomes from different modalities of psychotherapy – has constituted a major controversy within psychotherapy research during several decades. Given the fact that the lack of substantial and solid evidence for any type of “superior practice” also has haunted research concerning addiction treatment, and that some of the more recent development of clinical trials in the field of addiction treatment to a large extent have produced results which connect to the Dodo bird verdict (as e.g. Project MATCH , the COMBINE study and the UKATT study), it seems to be worthwhile to analyze and discuss the nature of both so called specific and common or contextual mechanisms. This paper focus on some empirical and theoretical concerns related to different types of hypothetical treatment mechanisms. The discussion will mainly deal with the two prototypic versions of mechanisms; specific and contextual/common, with an emphasis on the latter type.
