FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Shock, fear, anger, grief - this was the reaction of millions of Americans as they watched the events of September 11 unfold. In the aftermath, mental health professionals flocked to New York on a mission to ease the anguish and anxiety of survivors, rescue workers and witnesses. It is a mission, says one University of Arkansas psychologist, that is well-intentioned but possibly misguided.

The problem is two-fold, according to Jeffrey Lohr, professor of psychology. First, he believes it is too early for people to truly benefit from psychological therapy. Secondly, Lohr said, many of the therapists who have traveled to New York are peddling treatments that are not scientifically sound nor proven to be effective.

"It’s going to take a while for the horror of these events to sink in. After a month or more, some people may show symptoms that indicate longer-term psychiatric pathology such as post-traumatic stress disorder," Lohr said. "But people should not attempt to forestall or prevent the development of those disorders by a slapdash incident debriefing. There’s no evidence to indicate that immediate treatment reduces the later incidence or development of psychiatric disorder."

Just days after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington D.C., Lohr joined 20 esteemed colleagues from around the world in drafting a letter to the American Psychological Association journal, Monitor on Psychology. The letter expressed sympathy for those suffering as a result of the attacks, but it also urged mental health professionals to refrain from forcing treatment during this time of natural grief and horror. Further, the letter warned therapists against intervening in ways that could trigger or exacerbate later trauma.

In particular, Lohr cites a form of intervention called critical incident stress debriefing (CISD). This treatment - usually applied in group sessions shortly after disasters - requires survivors to re-live and discuss the details of their traumatic experiences. According to Lohr, CISD sessions have been going on in New York since the first day of the attacks, despite the fact that recent scientific testing shows no measurable benefit of CISD and actually indicates that the treatment heightens trauma in some people.

As the days and weeks pass, other pseudoscientific treatments filter into the disaster areas, Lohr said, some with even greater potential for detrimental effects. The developers of trendy treatments such as Emotional Freedom Therapy, Thought Field Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing have treated the terrorist attacks as a summons - attempting to apply their methods to as many victims as possible.

"I’ve seen email messages and Internet postings in which the promoters of these fringe treatments are poised to move into New York and are looking for introductions," Lohr said. "They’re using the disaster as a way to insinuate themselves into the programs and procedures of emergency service personnel."

For more than four years, Lohr has focused his research efforts on debunking pseudoscientific psychological therapies. He serves as president of the Science and Pseudoscience Review Special Interest Group of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and has published several articles on pseudoscientific treatments.

As such, Lohr is well-acquainted with the miraculous claims of these treatments as well as their inherent flaws, and he considers their use potentially dangerous to survivors of the current catastrophe. He also cautions that even those pseudoscientific treatments shown to cause no detrimental effects may impede recovery simply because they take the place of scientifically sound, effective therapies.

For the most part, Lohr believes that the CISD treatments have been provided in good faith - as an attempt to help people cope with the overwhelming tragedy of the terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, psychological counseling may not be the most appropriate way to support people at this time, he said. By immediately responding to disasters through therapy, Lohr believes that the natural responses of grief, anger and fear are being pathologized.

"The medicalization of normal but tragic human reactions is a major mistake, and turning human misery - the result of atrocious circumstances - into a mental disorder is dangerously misguided," he said. "These people need to be viewed as citizens in stress and under extreme duress, not as patients."

Studies of combat survivors have shown psychologists that, of people subjected to traumatic circumstances, as many as 20 percent will later develop a psychiatric disorder as a result of their experiences. However, the symptoms and effects of such disorders take time to develop. They don’t manifest right away, Lohr said. Therefore, they can’t be treated right away.

"That means there are a lot of people - not only in New York but around the nation - who are going to feel really horrible for a reasonable period of time and who are then going to come to terms with these events, live through them and not end up with a psychiatric diagnosis," Lohr explained.

Rather than forcing therapy on people who don’t really need it, Lohr indicates that other forms of support and counseling may be more appropriate at this time. For those with spiritual beliefs, he recommends visiting their religious leaders. He also suggests that sharing emotions between family and friends can help mitigate the anguish and fear of this difficult time. Such simple, inexpensive actions have a tremendous impact on recovery, he said.

But Lohr also stresses the he is by no means trying to discourage people from seeking psychiatric help if they believe they need it. For individuals who feel their reactions have been more intense or more prolonged than is healthy, Lohr recommends they approach a licensed mental health practitioner. He simply suggests that they wait for symptoms to develop before doing so. This is especially important in the case of children, Lohr said.

"If parents see an otherwise ebullient child reacting to these events by being withdrawn, crying excessively, sleeping poorly or lashing out in anger, then - and only then - it’s time to seek advice from a licensed mental health professional," he said. "Trying to apply therapy when you haven’t noticed such symptoms would be very ill-advised. You can’t give your child a psychological inoculation."