Hi

I suspect that there is more to your question. Psychotherapy can be as effective as pharmacotherapy although there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that the combination of the two has a larger effect size. The short answer is "yes". Is there something more specifically that you are thinking of?

cheers, randy

There is more to my question, yes. The mental disorders in question that I will be pertaining to is Anxiety, Mood, Behavioral and some Autism Spectrum Disorder. My research is based on an Research Argumentative Style paper. In regards to the information I am looking towards, can be both non medicated and medicated therapeutic plans. Is one better than the other and how can a person improve their lifestyle with using these options. Does this help in clarifying your question?

ASD is not a mental disorder; it is a developmental disorder. It does not need to be treated with medication but with physical, occupation, and/or speech therapy depending on each individual's needs. As for anxiety, depression, and PTSD, there is an abundance of evidence that meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises are effective for those disorders. If I were to be writing this paper, I would do a search for "yoga and anxiety/depression/PTSD/attention disorders evidence," then the same for meditation and breathing exercises.

Much as Meko is saying, ASD represents a disorder of neurodevelopment. That is not to say that medications don’t have a place, as they can, but there is also a need for a number of modalities. Your other “disorders” are actually symptoms. It is their constellation that defines what sort of disorder you might be dealing with and then that informs the relative effect size of therapy (and what modality thereof) vs meds vs both.

does this help?

Randy, yes it does help. With the Autism, I should have put it in a different category than mental disorders. I was Autism, Anxiety, Behavioral, Depression, PTSD as a way that we can possibly treat in a more non medical therapeutic plan as Meko mentioned with using yoga, meditation and breathing exercises and also adding nutritional values of foods to add in the patients diet to alleviate symptoms of these disorders and changing the patients lifestyle to improve overall health. If medication is needed in the process, then add to their therapeutic plan. This is the research I am attempting for my paper.