The Effectiveness of Observed and Experiential Integration in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Comment on Bradshaw and Colleagues (2014)

In this commentary, we show that Bradshaw et al. (2014) conclusion is premature, because of several serious methodological limitations. The authors did not verify for pre-test groups equivalence, though the clinical severity between the experimental and control group at baseline clearly calls for it. Moreover, we question the lack of control of the effect of exposure to trauma narrative during Switching. We also wonder on what basis Bradshaw and his colleagues concluded that OEI can be effective for cases of complex PTSD. Finally, since only one component of the Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) has been used to assess the participants, one cannot draw conclusions on treatment efficacy. All these issues are detailed in the paper.