Spencer Samuel D, McKay Dean
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, 1155 Union Circle #311280, Denton, TX, USA.
Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2025 May;53(5):597-607. doi: 10.1007/s10802-025-01323-z. Epub 2025 Apr 30.
The field of clinical psychological science has made considerable progress over the years in developing, testing, and disseminating psychological interventions for youth mental health conditions. Despite these achievements, the question of whether certain treatments may actually be inert, or at worst, iatrogenic, has been relatively underexamined compared to affirmative questions of efficacy. Fortunately, interest in the topic of harm within psychological treatments is growing. However, much of this work has taken place from a general theoretical perspective and has primarily focused on adults, and adaptations to youth populations remain limited. Thus, this special issue fills an important gap in the literature in terms of furthering our understanding of the potential for harm in youth mental health treatment. The articles in this collection contain a balance of conceptual, methodological, and empirical research focused on better understanding the potential for harm in youth mental health treatment with regard to particular populations, settings, and psychological disorders. In this introductory article, we: (a) explicate a brief background review of previous conceptual and empirical knowledge development efforts concerning potential for harm in psychological treatments, (b) outline unique considerations for specifically addressing this topic in youth, and (c) provide an overview and synthesis of articles in the collection. This special issue raises awareness of the ways in which youth may inadvertently be adversely affected by psychological interventions. We hope this will lead to greater refinement of beneficial evidence-based interventions and more nuanced attention given to potential areas of pitfall in clinical practice with youth.
多年来，临床心理科学领域在开发、测试和推广针对青少年心理健康问题的心理干预措施方面取得了显著进展。尽管取得了这些成就，但与关于疗效的肯定性问题相比，某些治疗方法是否实际上无效，或者最糟糕的是是否具有医源性，这个问题相对而言研究较少。幸运的是，对心理治疗中伤害这一主题的兴趣正在增加。然而，这项工作大多是从一般理论角度进行的，主要关注成年人，针对青少年群体的调整仍然有限。因此，本期特刊在增进我们对青少年心理健康治疗中潜在伤害可能性的理解方面填补了文献中的一个重要空白。本论文集中的文章在概念、方法和实证研究之间取得了平衡，重点是更好地理解在特定人群、环境和心理障碍方面青少年心理健康治疗中潜在的伤害可能性。在这篇介绍性文章中，我们：(a) 简要阐述了以往关于心理治疗中潜在伤害可能性的概念和实证知识发展努力的背景回顾，(b) 概述了专门针对青少年解决这一主题的独特考虑因素，以及 (c) 对本论文集中的文章进行了概述和综合。本期特刊提高了人们对青少年可能在不经意间受到心理干预不利影响的方式的认识。我们希望这将导致对基于证据的有益干预措施进行更精细的改进，并在针对青少年的临床实践中对潜在的陷阱领域给予更细致入微的关注。
