"sometimes the best treatment is no treatment at all"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/health/psychology/30beha.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=login

Thanks, Heather, for the link.

"A few years back, one of my residents was treating a young man in psychotherapy who had great difficulty deciding what he wanted to do with his life.

He wasn't depressed, but he was a very passive person.

It became clear that the patient was using the treatment not to understand his passivity, but to indulge it; he enjoyed talking about what he should do, but made no steps outside of therapy despite many attempts to address his behavior. We stopped his psychotherapy and referred him for vocational counseling.

The possible benefits of no treatment go beyond just patients who get worse in therapy. Some patients have been in psychotherapy for so long that it isn't clear what the advantage of treatment is; in some of these cases, stopping therapy gives patients a chance to discover that they might do fine without it.

Others might seek treatment during a crisis or when they are grief-stricken. As painful as these situations can be, if people are generally healthy and have good social supports, they are likely just to feel better with time and probably don't need any treatment at all.

At first blush, it might sound paradoxical — even uncaring — but sometimes the best treatment is no treatment at all."