In this case, almost trivially, the finding of the binding partners is enabled by a non-specific element encoded in their respective structures – the hydrophobicity of their overall molecular surface.
Some of the non-specific elements of psychological treatments may actually represent active mechanisms of change.
Clinical practice includes many non-specific elements which can contribute to the overall efficacy of a treatment.
Such an interpretation could be supported by our data, since the non-specific elements are by far the more important ones, compared with the specific elements of treatment.
Elements that are directly involved in the pathogenesis of sepsis complications are thus more attractive candidates than non-specific elements of the inflammatory cascade.
Fungal genomes exhibit a low rate of evolution [ 36], which could explain why even the specific lineages are still very similar to the non-specific elements.
Furthermore, some of the non-specific elements included in psychological control therapies, such as homework assignments, are not common to all psychological treatments as used in clinical practice.
Common (non-specific) elements of psychotherapies are taught as basic skills in psychotherapy programs, presumably because these are universally seen as therapeutic.
As shown above, supportive therapies excluded from Benish et al.'s (2008) meta-analysis included the non-specific elements of good therapy and they were not inert.
It is not clear if and to what extent therapy- specific elements (e.g. cognitive skills in CBT or relational skills in IPT), non-specific elements (e.g. therapeutic alliance), or both, contribute to the effects of psychotherapy.
The pilot trial, with treatment as usual as its control condition, was open to the criticism that the treatment effect might have been linked to non-specific elements, rather than being a specific effect of CBT.
