many people would get the same benefits of therapy from talking to their minister, hiring a personal trainer, exercising more, putting up their phone at 8pm and getting better sleep. maybe a self-help book if they have bad coping skills.  a major issue with standard psychology is that observer rating scales or client self report are the data of interest. very subjective stuff. in substance abuse treatment, piss tests, saliva swabs, and blood draws are relatively cheap and often court mandated. there is basic research on drug effects in rats, primates, and other animals. translational research with humans let's us know that many of the behavioral and physiological tendencies are exactly the same as in animals. again, while it's nice that a client is completing their workbooks and participating in therapy and reports doing better, what matters is the supervised drug test and other independent outcomes such as dwi arrests.
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