Randomized Clinical Trial, Research Paper Example

The article entitled Organization of co-occurring Axis II features in borderline personality disorder is written by Kenneth L. Critchfield, John F. Clarkin, Kenneth N. Levy and Otto F. Kernberg in the year 2008 for the British Journal of Clinical Psychology. It focuses on the study of borderline personality disorder (BPD) as being a focus of investigation in psychopathology, phenomenology and treatment. Randomized clinical trial can be said to be characterized by two or more therapeutic groups. One treatment can be seen as a placebo or a control. This is seen in the article where the control in the experiment was the definitions which were based in the theoretical framework. Often, the control condition is seen as the treatment which is standard of care when it is compared with experimental treatments. Other potentially confounding variables, such as psychological variables can be controlled with the use of coding in the treatment. This is done is such a way where the subject does not know or cannot tell what it is; this is a blind trial. The experiment followed a type of blind-trial where the participants did not know of the test being administered to them.

The randomized assignment includes a design of Q-factoring which was defined as occurring in Axis II profiles. This was accompanied by three clusters of organization which can be seen as the follow up assessments; and additionally a factor of analysis which is seen in two dimensions: extraversion and introversion, antagonism and constraint.

There were a total of 90 participants in the study and all subjects completed the study. No evidence was given that the subjects in the study were concealed from the data of the research being conducted. Each subject in the study received a diagnosis of BPD which was based on DSM-IV criteria. Before the randomization of the treatment cell, self-report questionnaires and interview based measures were administered to the participants individually. The system used in this study was a blind-trial, where the subjects did not know of the test or the treatment being administered to them. Q-factoring in the testing was used over the clustering strategies for the exam.

The group control used in the study was appropriate, and measures were established to define relevant scales which the subjects were selected from. There were two approaches which were used to explore Axis II BPD heterogeneity; these were the identification of prototypic profiles based on Axis II which are features which co-occurred in BPD diagnosis. The second were the two dimensions which were identified above. The instruments used for measuring these were valid and based on theoretical framework.

The group demographics in the study were mostly female, their variables were not similar, and their differences lied in their levels of BDP, age, ethnicity and so on. The results of the study were stated to be expected, and a sample which had a high mean in BPD showed. This reveals the importance in the results as coinciding with the hypothesis and the assumptions in the study. There is confidence in the mean level, which resulted to be high. All clinically important outcomes were measured, however the overall discussion states that there is a problem which was found in the results; this being that the co-occurrence of Axis II features among the subjects which were diagnosed poses a problem in the categorical conception of this order. This would suggest further studies in this field, maybe by using a different means or method of research design. The numbers which are needed to be treated were undefined since there were difficulties which were faced in the clinical practice, and this calls for the need for tailored treatment in differing clinical presentations.