The Dodo verdict and the efficacy of psychotherapy

This is one of the most lively debates in psychology: are all therapies equally valid?

Psychology is a relatively young science (the first scientific laboratory of psychology was not created until 1879) and is continually evolving, with different schools of thought dedicated to different areas and conceptualizations of the human psyche. One of the best known and most popular fields is clinical psychology and psychotherapy, which greatly helps to improve patients suffering from different ailments, difficulties and disorders.

However, treating a patient is not the first thing that comes to mind: it requires the use of different techniques that have proven to have real and significant efficacy. Assessing the effectiveness of a technique requires assessing not only the possible improvement of a patient but also comparing it with the absence of therapy and with other treatments and currents. The research carried out in this sense has generated great repercussions and ways of understanding psychotherapy and its effects. Even today there is debate as to whether or not the different types of therapy present significant differences in terms of effectiveness, discussing something with a curious name: the Dodo effect, which is related to a topic related to the Dodo effect. Dodo effect, related to a topic known as the Dodo verdict.. We will talk about these two concepts here.

What is the Dodo effect?

It is denominated effect Dodo a hypothetical phenomenon that reflects that the efficacy of all the techniques of psychotherapy maintain an almost equivalent effectiveness.There are no significant differences between the multiple theoretical and methodological currents available. The verdict of the Dodo is the subject of debate that revolves around the existence or non-existence of this effect: do therapies work because of their effectiveness in triggering the precise psychological mechanisms according to the theoretical model from which they start, or do they simply work because of other things that all therapists apply without realizing it?

Its denomination is a metaphor introduced by Rosenzweig in reference to Lewis Carrol's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. One of the characters in this narrative is the Dodo bird, who considered at the end of the endless race the fact that "everyone has won and everyone must have prizes". The effect in question was suggested by this author in a publication in 1936, considering after conducting some research that it is the shared factors between the different perspectives and the functioning of the therapy that really generates a change and allows the patient's recovery.

If this effect really exists, the implications could be highly relevant for the application of psychology. highly relevant to the application of practical clinical psychologyThe development of different therapies among the different currents of thought would become unnecessary and it would be advisable to investigate and generate strategies that focus on explaining and enhancing the elements they have in common (something that in reality is already done in practice, technical eclecticism being quite common in the profession).

However, different researches have questioned and denied its existence, observing that certain approaches work better in certain types of disorders and population.

Two opposing poles: the verdict of the Dodo

The initial research that seemed to reflect the existence of the Dodo effect at the time were fiercely opposed by various professionals, who carried out their own investigations andThe initial research that seemed to reflect the existence of the Dodo effect was fiercely opposed by various professionals who conducted their own research and found that there were indeed significant differences. However, these investigations were later refuted by other authors, and even today we still find different investigations that suggest different conclusions.

Thus, we can find that there are mainly two camps in considering whether there are statistically significant differences in terms of the effectiveness of different therapies.

The importance of the therapeutic relationship

On the one hand, those who advocate the existence of the Dodo effect that almost all therapies have a similar effectiveness to each other, with specific techniques of treatment being less effective than others.On the other hand, those who defend the existence of the Dodo effect claim that almost all therapies have a similar effectiveness between them, not so much the specific techniques of each theoretical current but the common elements underlying all of them that generate a real effect on patients. The latter defend the need to investigate and reinforce these common elements.

Some authors such as Lambert argue that recovery is due to unspecific effects: partly to factors of the therapeutic relationship, personal factors of the subject unrelated to the therapy itself, the expectation of recovery and of working towards improvement and, only in a much more modest way, to elements derived from the theoretical model or technique itself.

The truth is that in this sense, different researches have emerged that support the great importance of these aspects, being some of the main ones the therapeutic relationship between professional and patient (something to which all disciplines have given great importance) and the therapist's attitude towards the patient and his or her problems (empathy, active listening and unconditional acceptance among them). But this does not necessarily exclude the possibility that (as proposed by Lambert), there are differences between treatments in terms of their effectiveness.

The importance of the therapy model

Those who argue that there are significant differences between therapies, on the other hand, observe real differences in the effectiveness of the treatments and consider that the basic functioning of the different intervention strategies employed is what generates behavioral change. is what generates the behavioral and cognitive change in the patient, with some strategies being more effective than others in certain disorders or alterations.

The different investigations carried out comparing treatments have shown different levels of effectiveness depending on the problem to be treated and the circumstances surrounding it.

It has also been observed that certain therapies can even be counterproductive depending on the disorder in which they are applied, something that has had to be controlled so that patients can improve and not the opposite. Something like this would not happen if all therapies worked the same. However, it is also true that this does not preclude that the core of the change may be due to common factors between the different therapies.

What about an intermediate consideration?

What is certain is that the debate continues to this day to rage, and there is no clear consensus on this and counting research as to whether the Dodo effect or verdict is really there or not. In both cases, different methodological aspects have been criticized that may cast doubt on the results obtained or have implications different from those initially considered.

It can probably be considered that neither side is absolutely right, with some procedures being more appropriate than others in certain situations and subjects (after all, each subject and problem has its own way of functioning and its modification requires a more focused action in certain areas), but the shared elements between the different therapies are the main mechanism that allows the generation of change.

In any case, it should not be forgotten that the clinical practice of psychotherapy is or should always be done for the benefit of the patient. is or should always be done for the benefit of the patient, who is the one who comes to the consultation.who is the one who comes to the consultation seeking professional help from a person prepared to do so. This involves both knowing specific techniques to employ that have been shown to be effective and developing and optimizing basic therapeutic skills so that a context can be maintained that is, per se, beneficial to him.

Bibliographical references

• Lambert, M.J. (1992). Implications of outcome research for psychotherapy integration. In Norcross JC and Goldfried MC (Eds.). Handbook of psychotherapy integration (pp.94-129). New York: Basic Books.
• Fernández, J.R. and Pérez, M. (2001). Separating the wheat from the chaff in psychological treatments. Psicothema Vol. 13(3), 337-344.
• González-Blanch, C. and Carral-Fernández, L. (2017). cage Dodo, please! The tale that all psychotherapies are equally effective. Papeles del Psicólogo, 38 (2): 94-106.