Lit request: "Self-recovery"

[biogirl215]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you could point me towards literature (the peer-reviewed kind, not the Jane Austen kind ) on "self-recovery" (recovery in the absence of professional help) for any d/o's except substance ones. My own searching on pubmed turned up othing. While I know this type of research is unlikely (after all, if these people aren't receiving clinical treatment, they aren't likely to be in a clinical setting..), but I've worked in a lab that does research on alcoholism, and I know we saw research of that type for substance d/o's. I found it interesting and was wondering if it was out there for other d/o's (I was thinking that it might be more prevalent for d/o's with a lot of behavoiral manifestations [i.e., OCD, ED's] but anything would be much appreciated. ).

Thanks!

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[karma898]

Sorry... I have nothing to offer in terms of the lit review you are looking for, but I had to laugh at your spelling error (pee-reviewed)!!! That made my day.

 

[toby jones]

People have started doing research on self-help consumer sites. Not so much the 'empirical study' kind of research, however. The majority of it is warning of the perils:

For example:

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_psychiatry_and_psychology/v011/11.4charland01.pdf

There is some stuff on pro-anorexia sites, pro-self injury sites etc. Not sure they count as 'self help', however.

If a person wants a perfectly healthy limb removed and they manage to get a surgeon to amputate (because a person on a self-help board suggests one) then once they have the amputation are they recovered?

There is some stuff on memory. The perils of consumers reading self-help books that suggest that if you exhibit x and y and z (general and non-descript) symptoms then you must have been sexually abused (whether or not you remember it).

Other than that... Was there some stuff done on consumer run group therapy for such things as borderline personality disorder and / or sexual abuse? Mostly as a 'follow-up' kind of thing after a person had graduated from DBT. Not sure if studies have been done on this, however. Of if they have been they might be self-reported benefit rather than objectively observable benefit. Googling around that might turn something up...

Robert Hsiung (University of Chicago) has published some research on Babble (an online message board self-help community).

That might be most promising with respect to some posters simply not having the funds to receive psychotherapy in particular.

I can't point you to the research directly, but if I was looking for some I'd try Googling around those areas.

Two WHO studies showed that people in developing nations (who have less access to treatment) recover from schizophrenia more than people in developed nations. Not sure if this counts as 'self recovery'. Similarly for theraputic communities (like AA and NA) for mental disorders - as Szasz and other anti-psychiatrists attempted to treat people with mental disorder.

 

[JockNerd]

I'd go to the library and grab a few intro to clinical psych books. Most have a section on self-help intervention that can guide you in good directions. I know mine had such a section (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Clinical-Psychology-Michael-Nietzel/dp/013098082X)

 

[char111]

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713834043~db=all
SISTERS OF THE YAM: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN?S HEALING AND SELF-RECOVERY FROM INTIMATE MALE PARTNER VIOLENCE

http://fap.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/3/307
Constructing a Non-depressed Self: Women’s Accounts of Recovery from Depression


http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a785671777~db=all
poetry and self-recovery

http://www.springerlink.com/content/x203xt755t3q0j35/
Methodological Problems in Research on Treatments for Pathological Gambling

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a791853015~db=all
Recovery from problem gambling without formal treatment

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a783308819~db=all
Reviewing Frankl's will to meaning and its implications for psychotherapy dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12237978
If at first you don't succeed. False hopes of self-change.

regards,
psi_tutor_org