Friday 14 March 2014

Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies - convention report



I’ve just returned from the annual convention of the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) held in Music City USA (Nashville, Tennessee). The convention’s theme this year was “Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies: Harnessing Synergy among Multidisciplinary Sciences.” Cognitive and behavioural therapy (CBT) is grounded in empirical findings and the scientist-practitioner model of clinical practice. Given CBT’s inherent emphasis on using scientific findings to guide and advance clinical practice, it is not surprising that numerous methodologies were presented via posters and symposia to demonstrate their usefulness for both measuring and conceptualising therapeutic change via CBT across a variety of patient issues. The scientific development of CBT serves to inform and guide clinical practice in a valuable, quantifiable ways such as the identification of active treatment components and variables that influence treatment outcomes. As the scientific discipline of CBT psychotherapy research continues to develop, scientists have added tremendous knowledge to the field, the research data has grown, and growth often begets change. In this case, change overtime in the larger body of research data on CBT calls for change in the overarching perceptions and practice of cognitive psychotherapy in the therapy room. As a result, CBT is now more diverse and flexible than ever before.

The ABCT annual convention affords its members a unique opportunity to witness discussions among leading minds in the field. I attended a clinical roundtable focusing on harnessing synergy and discussing changes in cognitive psychotherapy research overtime among three of ABCT’s leading thinkers: Drs Gerald  Davison (Distinguished academic; 8th President of ABCT), Steven  Hayes (founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and Marsha Linehan (founder of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy). The panel were asked to discuss their most telling reconsiderations in the form of three simple questions: What have you changed your mind about? Why? How have scientific findings or arguments changed your mind? The panel discussion of experts shared their thoughts about the progress of CBT as a stand-alone psychotherapy branching from traditional behavioural therapy and emphasized how much has been gained by incorporating elements of Eastern philosophy (e.g., mindfulness, acceptance, nonjudgmental being) into traditional cognitive psychotherapy.  Notably, each panel member provided ample evidence of failed research attempts, difficulty interpreting data given prevailing theoretical beliefs, and occasional disbelief and/or inability to accept research findings. It was refreshing to learn that giants in the field are equally plagued by the complex nature of psychotherapy research. Their message was clear: it’s ok to fail as a researcher as long as you learn why you’ve failed –that’s a true scientist. As a result of the persistence of these three distinguished academics, cognitive psychotherapy has continued to expand and branch within itself, making the practice even more robust, diverse, and effective.

My primary purpose for attending ABCT was to present recent research findings on social anxiety and situational alcohol use.  My US colleague Dr Julia Buckner and I were invited by Dr Ruth Cooper at the Institute for Clinical Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany to present research findings for a symposium titled: Social Anxiety and Hazardous Drinking: Illuminating Mechanisms of Comorbidity. This symposium aimed to: 1) describe three new theoretical rationales for the highly comorbid nature of social anxiety and alcohol; 2) explain potential anxiety relieving mechanisms of alcohol consumption; 3) assess and target specific pathological processes relevant to the comorbidity; and 4) suggest future directions for research and clinical practice in this common but difficult to treat clinical comorbidity. This symposium included talks by international leaders in social anxiety research: Drs Julia Buckner (Louisiana State University, USA), Sherry Stewart (Dalhousie, Canada), Lindsay Ham (University of Arkansas, USA), and Professor Alex L. Gerlach (University of Cologne, Germany). My talk, The Role of Conformity and Coping Motives in the Prediction of Excessive Situational Drinking Among Socially Anxious Undergraduates, showed socially anxious undergraduate drinkers are more likely to drink heavily in negative emotion drinking situations (e.g., when feeling lonely, angry, sad) and drinking in these situations was moderated by coping and conformity motives (i.e., drinking to avoid negative affect and/or social scrutiny).  Thus, highly socially anxious undergraduate drinkers with strong beliefs that drinking helps reduce social scrutiny appear to be especially vulnerable to drink heavily to cope in negative emotion situations.  A paper stemming from these findings is currently in press at Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, the American Psychology Association’s quarterly addictive behaviours journal.

I also presented a paper on research findings from a longitudinal randomized control trial involving alcohol treatment for at-risk university student drinkers. The talk, Addressing Heavy Drinking among Alcohol Treatment Mandated University Students: Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of a Campus-Based Brief Alcohol Intervention, stems from a completed research project funded by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as part of my doctoral research programme. My co-authors and mentors on the project include Drs Amy Copeland and Julia Buckner, Louisiana State University, and Professor Mary Larimer, the University of Washington Seattle. Dr Larimer is a leading researcher in alcohol prevention interventions among young people. A full length manuscript of this project is currently under review.
Overall, the convention provided an excellent opportunity to reconnect with the momentum of CBT research, network with international colleagues, and of course, listen to live country music and learn to line dance.

Meredith Terlecki