RESEARCH IDEAS IN DRILL THERAPY
Cognitive Drill Therapy has immense potentials of research. There can be so many ideas and areas to work with. I am enumerating my thoughts and vision of research ideas for CDT. There can be many more ideas which can be conceptualized and executed by creative and passionate researchers.
1. Case Studies: Since CDT is still in its formative stage, we are contemplating a huge number of case studies that can be worked out using CDT. I am encouraging therapists to maintain systematic record of each case which includes case history, clinical interview, formal assessment of severity, cognitive drill assessment, cognitive drill protocol, session-wise details of work up and follow ups. Each case is a potential case study. I have noted that the cases of pure obsessions, contamination OCD, social anxiety, examination anxiety, specific phobia including lizard phobia, fear of skin disease, fear of germs and agoraphobia are responding to CDT quite favorably. If we can generate good number of case studies, that itself would serve the basis for larger group studies. Also the range of conditions covered in case studies and the responsiveness of CDT would provide a basis for more number of case based studies.
2. Within Group Studies: Pre-post and follow up group studies could also be carried out for any of the phobia and OCD. In the beginning, social anxiety and specific phobia of any type can be good starting point for within group studies. Such studies would involve comprehensive baseline assessment, execution of CDT protocol for 10 sessions, post assessment and follow up assessment at 03 and 06 months. The sample size can be anywhere between 10-30 patients in one study.
3. Between Group Studies: The comparative studies between groups can be conceptualized in many ways. The simplest study would be pre-post study of two groups (a) CDT group (b) reference group. Identify any specific disorder and implement CDT protocol in one group and the second group does not receive the treatment. I could be wait listed control group. Again the assessments would have to be carried out at three points (a) Baseline (b) Post CDT (c) follow up.
4. Comparison of CDT with Other Therapies: More than one group can be recruited where one group receives CDT and other groups receive other forms of treatment such as ERP, Cognitive Restructuring, REBT etc. Such studies would help in documentation of the effect size of CDT and whether it is really useful in comparison to other forms of existing therapies.
5. Integration of Psychophysiological Parameters: While conducting any kind of study on CDT, be it a case study or a group study, psychophysiological parameters such as galvanic skin response, heart rate variability can be monitored before, during and after treatment with CDT. This will provide an objective evidence for the efficacy of CDT.
6. Applicability of Single Subject Designs: Single subject designs such as ABAB Design, Multiple Baseline Design, Changing Criterion Design can provide an excellent design framework for evaluation of the efficacy of CDT. Until, group studies takes up, I would recommend the researchers to consider this design for conducting robust studies on CDT. There are several good resources which can be used to become familiar with single subject designs.
7. Brain Imaging: If someone can take up high-tech researches, it could do wonders in the understanding of CDT. What happens in the brain when a person is performing cognitive drill and what changes take place in the brain upon completion of the drill and reduction/ elimination of fears.
8. Extension of CDT: I have been applying CDT in cases of phobia and OCD. Other therapists are taking it beyond these conditions. Researches can be conducted to explore to what extent CDT is useful in the conditions like envy, depression, PTSD, anger management and the like.
With increasing application of Cognitive Drill Therapy, more and more researches will be undertaken by the researchers. Since CDT is based on scientific principles of psychology, it is bound to get a boost in due course of time.
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