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Mostly harmless? Clinical practice guidelines need further consideration of psychotherapy adverse effects
Stephen Allison1, Jeffrey Cl Looi2, Steve Kisely3
1College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia; and Consortium of Australian-Academic Psychiatrists for Independent Policy and Research Analysis (CAPIPRA), Canberra, ACT, Australia.
None:
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists clinical practice guidelines on mood disorders recommend psychotherapy as foundational care for patients with acute depression with minimal discussion of any potential adverse effects. Randomised controlled trial evidence on psychotherapy adverse effects is limited. This is problematic because clinicians must balance the benefits of treatment against the harms, and clinical decisions become skewed without data on adverse effects. We suggest that clinical practice guidelines should be more guarded about recommending psychotherapy and add consensus statements on adverse effects for informed consent and clinical decision-making.
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