Dr. Adam M Volungis

Not All Treatments Are Equal: Re-Conceptualizing Treatments That Cause Harm

Volungis, A. M., McGrath, M. A., Truong, D. T., Liu, S., Schmidt, K., & Garry A. (2013, October). Not all treatments are equal: Re-conceptualizing treatments that cause harm.  Paper presented at the 19^th annual conference of the New England Psychological Association, Bridgeport, CT.

Not all treatments are created equal.  This potentially provocative statement is an implied premise to the idea of evidence-based treatments (EBTs).  While the premise of developing a list of EBTs is noble, there has been some opposition to the practice, including concerns that the criteria used to determine what counts as evidence-based is problematic.  We posit that identifying, and creating a list of, potentially harmful treatments (PHTs) is just as important as current lists of EBTs (see Lilienfeld, 2007).  We also explore the reason why practitioners still use PHTs despite clear evidence of their ineffective or harmful effects.

*Click on hyperlink above for paper.

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Suicide and the Media: A Literature Review and Considerations for the Media Promoting Mental Health

McGrath, M. A., Liu, S., Whittle, D. S., & Volungis, A. M. (2013, October). Suicide and the media: A literature review and considerations for the media promoting mental health. Paper presented at the 19^th annual conference of the New England Psychological Association, Bridgeport, CT.

Does the media have an influence on suicide rates?  The focus of this paper is to investigate the current state of the literature, and identify promising directions. In particular, the idea that the media might be able to play an active role in promoting mental health via the Papageno effect will be explored. This paper will also take a tentative look at the variables that might be at play in media effects, and consider how research on this topic might be generalized to proposed connections between the media and other behaviors.