occurs whenever a persons scores below cut-offs on two psychometric tests. Just how ludicrous, this is, was brought home to me recently when I was called to assess a lady who had been trapped in her car, by a fallen tree. After 12 sessions of trauma focused CBT, she was scoring below cut-offs on the PHQ-9 (a measure of the severity of depression) and on the GAD-7 (a measure of the severity of generalised anxiety disorder). But she still felt unable to return to her, much-loved job as a bookkeeper, despite every support from her employer. For six months after the incident, she met the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, currently, she had a sub-syndromal level of PTSD (meeting 3 of the necessary 4 symptoms clusters for PTSD). But she had never met criteria for depression or generalised anxiety disorder, the two tests administered were therefore entirely inappropriate. [ Details have been changed to protect confidentiality.]
Common sense would dictate that this lady is not back to her usual self. But NHS Talking Therapies staff seize on the lightest sign of improvement, make it central and abandon the client. There is no evidence that its’ staff appreciate the meaning of the psychometric tests they administer. Wilfully or not they are not listening to the client’s story – ‘just keep the production line rolling‘ is the mantra.
Dr Mike Scott