Cognitive behavioral therapy

See also: Cognitive Therapy

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Cognitive behavioral therapy (or cognitive behavior therapy, CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to influence problematic and dysfunctional emotions, behaviors and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure. CBT can be seen as an umbrella term for therapies that share a theoretical basis in behavioristic learning theory and cognitive psychology, and that use methods of change derived from these theories.^[1].

CBT treatments have received empirical support for efficient treatment of a variety of clinical and non-clinical problems, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, and psychotic disorders.^[2] It is often brief and time-limited. It is used in individual therapy as well as group settings, and the techniques are also commonly adapted for self-help applications. Some CBT therapies are more oriented towards predominately cognitive interventions while some are more behaviorally oriented. In cognitive oriented therapies, the objective is typically to identify and monitor thoughts, assumptions, beliefs and behaviors that are related and accompanied to debilitating negative emotions and to identify those which are dysfunctional, inaccurate, or simply unhelpful. This is done in an effort to replace or transcend them with more realistic and useful ones.

CBT was primarily developed through a merging of behavior therapy with cognitive therapy. While rooted in rather different theories, these two traditions found common ground in focusing on the "here and now" and symptom removal^[3]. Many CBT treatment programs for specific disorders have been developed and evaluated for efficacy and effectiveness; the health-care trend of evidence-based treatment, were specific treatments for specific symptom-based diagnoses are recommended, has favored CBT over other approaches such as psychodynamic treatments^[4]. In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends CBT as the treatment of choice for a number of mental health difficulties, including post-traumatic stress disorder, OCD, bulimia nervosa and clinical depression.

History

The roots of CBT can be traced to the development of behavior therapy in the early 20th century, the development of cognitive therapy in the 1960s, and the subsequent merging of the two. Behavior therapeutical approaches appeared as early as 1924^[3], with Mary Cover Jones' work on the unlearning of fears in children^[5]. However, it was during the period 1950 to 1970 that the field really emerged, with researchers in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa who were inspired by the behaviorist learning theory of Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson and Clark L. Hull.^[3] In Britain, this work was mostly focused on the neurotic disorders through the work of Joseph Wolpe, who applied the findings of animal experiments to his method of systematic desensitization^[6], the precursor to today's fear reduction techniques.^[3]. British psychologist Hans Eysenck, inspired by the writings of Karl Popper, criticized psychoanalysis in arguing that "if you get rid of the symptoms, you get rid of the neurosis" ^[7], and presented behavior therapy as a constructive alternative.^[8][3]. In the United States, psychologists were applying the radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner to clinical use. Much of this work was concentrated towards severe, chronic psychiatric disorders, such as psychotic behavior^[9][3] and autism^[10][3].

Albert Ellis (1913 – 2007) was a pioneer in the development of CBT.

Although the early behavioral approaches were successful in many of the neurotic disorders, it had little success in treating depression.^[3] Behaviorism was also losing in popularity due to the so-called "cognitive revolution". The therapeutic approaches of Aaron T. Beck and Albert Ellis gained popularity among behavior therapists, despite the earlier behaviorist rejection of "mentalistic" concepts like thoughts and cognitions. Both these systems included behavioral elements and interventions and primarily concentrated on problems in the present. Ellis' system, originated in the early and mid 1950s, was first called rational therapy, and can arguably be called one of the first forms of cognitive behavioral therapy. It was partly founded as a reaction against popular psychotherapeutic theories at the time, mainly psychoanalysis.^[11] Aaron T. Beck, inspired by Ellis, developed cognitive therapy, in the 1960s.^[12] Cognitive therapy rapidly became a favorite intervention to study in psychotherapy research in academic settings. In initial studies, it was often contrasted with behavioral treatments to see which was most effective. During the 1980s and 1990s, cognitive and behavioral techniques was merged into cognitive behavioral therapy. Pivotal in this merging was the successful developments of treatments of panic disorder by David M. Clark in the UK and David H. Barlow in the US.^[3]

Concurrently with the contributions of Ellis and Beck, starting in the late 1950s and continuing through the 1970s, Arnold A. Lazarus developed what was arguably the first form of broad-spectrum cognitive behavioral therapy. ^[13]. He later broadened the focus of behavioral treatment to incorporate cognitive aspects^[14]. When it became clear that optimizing therapy's effectiveness and effecting durable treatment outcomes often required transcending more narrowly focused cognitive and behavioral methods, Arnold Lazarus expanded the scope of CBT to include physical sensations (as distinct from emotional states), visual images (as distinct from language-based thinking), interpersonal relationships, and biological factors.

Approaches and systems

Further information: List of cognitive–behavioral therapies

CBT includes a variety of approaches and therapeutic systems; some of the most well known include Cognitive Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Multimodal Therapy. Defining the scope of what constitues a cognitive–behavioral therapy is a difficulty that has persisted throughout its development.^[15]. American psychologists Keith S. Dobson and David J. A. Dozois define cognitive–behavioral therapies as sharing the theoretical assumption that behavioral change is mediated by cognitive events.^[15]

The particular therapeutic techniques vary within the different approaches of CBT according to the particular kind of problem issues, but commonly may include keeping a diary of significant events and associated feelings, thoughts and behaviors; questioning and testing cognitions, assumptions, evaluations and beliefs that might be unhelpful and unrealistic; gradually facing activities which may have been avoided; and trying out new ways of behaving and reacting. Relaxation, mindfulness and distraction techniques are also commonly included. Cognitive behavioral therapy is often also used in conjunction with mood stabilizing medications to treat conditions like bipolar disorder. Its application in treating schizophrenia along with medication and family therapy is recognized by the NICE guidelines (see below) within the British NHS.

Going through cognitive behavioral therapy generally is not an overnight process for clients. Even after clients have learned to recognize when and where their mental processes go awry, it can in some case take considerable time of effort to replace a dysfunctional cognitive-affective-behavioral process or habit with a more reasonable and adaptive one.

Group therapy

Cognitive behavioral group therapy is a group therapy approach, developed by Richard Heimberg for the treatment of social phobia.^[16]

Computerized CBT

Main article: Computerised CBT

There are cognitive behavioral therapy sessions in which the user interacts with computer software (either on a PC, or sometimes via a voice-activated phone service), instead of face to face with a therapist. This can provide an option for patients, especially in light of the fact that there are not always therapists available, or the cost can be prohibitive. For people who are feeling depressed and withdrawn, the prospect of having to speak to someone about their innermost problems can be off-putting. In this respect, computerized CBT (especially if delivered online) can be a good option.

Randomized controlled trials have proven its effectiveness, and in February 2006 the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommended that CCBT be made available for use within the NHS across England and Wales, for patients presenting with mild to moderate depression, rather than immediately opting for antidepressant medication^[17].

Specific applications

CBT is applied to many clinical and non-clinical conditions and has been successfully used as a treatment for many clinical disorders, personality conditions and behavioral problems^[2] .

Anxiety disorders

A basic concept in CBT treatment of anxiety disorders is in vivo exposure. This means, gradual exposure to the actual, feared stimulus. The theory behind this is that the stimulus evokes the fear response because of classical conditioning, and is maintained because the avoidance of this particular is being positively reinforced – this "two-factor" model is often credited to O. Hobart Mowrer^[18]. Through exposure, this conditioning can be unlearned; this is referred to as extinction and habituation. A specific phobia, such as fear of spiders, can often be treated with in vivo exposure and therapist modeling in one session^[19]. Obsessive compulsive disorder is typically treated with exposure with response prevention.

Social phobia has often been treated with exposure coupled with cognitive restructuring, such as in Heimberg's group therapy protocol^[20]. Evidence suggests that cognitive interventions improve the result of social phobia treatment^[21].

CBT has been shown to be effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, and possibly more effective than pharmacological treatments in the long term^[22].

Mood disorders

One etiological theory of depression is Aaron Beck's cognitive theory of depression. His theory states that depressed people think the way they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations. According to this theory, depressed people acquire a negative schema of the world in childhood and adolescence as an effect of stressful life events. When the person with such schemata encounters a situation that in some way resembles the conditions in which the original schema was learned, the negative schemata of the person are activated^[23].

Beck also described a negative cognitive triad, made up of the negative schemata and cognitive biases of the person; Beck theorized that depressed individuals make negative evaluations of themselves, the world, and the future. Depressed people, according to this theory, have views such as "I never do a good job," and "things will never get better." A negative schema helps give rise to the cognitive bias, and the cognitive bias helps fuel the negative schema. This is the negative triad. Also, Beck proposed that depressed people often have the following cognitive biases: arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, over-generalization, magnification and minimization. These cognitive biases are quick to make negative, generalized, and personal inferences of the self, thus fueling the negative schema^[23].

For treatment of depression, a large-scale study in 2000^[24] showed substantially higher results of response and remission (73% for combined therapy vs. 48% for either CBT or a particular discontinued antidepressant alone) when a form of cognitive behavior therapy and that particular discontinued anti-depressant drug were combined than when either modality was used alone.

For more general results confirming that CBT alone can provide lower but nonetheless valuable levels of relief from depression, and result in increased ability for the patient to remain in employment, see The Depression Report,^[25] which states: 1000 people attend up to sixteen weekly sessions one-on-one lasting one hour each, some will drop out but within four months 50 people will have lost their psychiatric symptoms over and above those who would have done so anyway. After recovery, people who suffered from anxiety are unlikely to relapse. . . . So how much depression can a course of CBT relieve, and how much more work will result? One course of CBT is likely to produce 12 extra months free of depression. This means nearly two months more of work.

The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines (April 2000) indicated that among psychotherapeutic approaches, cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy had the best-documented efficacy for treatment of major depressive disorder.^[26]

Insomnia

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been found to be effective in reducing benzodiazepine usage in the treatment of insomnia. A large-scale trial utilizing CBT for chronic users of sedative hypnotics including nitrazepam, temazepam and zopiclone found the addition of CBT to improve outcome and reduce drug consumption in the treatment of chronic insomnia. Persisting improvements in sleep quality, sleep latency, and increased total sleep, as well as improvements in sleep efficiency and significant improvements in vitality and physical and mental health at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-ups were found in those receiving cognitive behavioral therapy with hypnotics compared with those patients receiving hypnotics alone. A marked reduction in total sedative hypnotic drug use was found in those receiving CBT, with 33% reporting no hypnotic drug use. Authors of the study suggested that CBT is potentially a flexible, practical, and cost-effective treatment for the treatment of insomnia and that CBT administered coincident to hypnotic treatment leads to a reduction of benzodiazepine drug intake in a significant number of patients.^[27]

CBT with children and adolescents

The use of CBT has been extended to children and adolescents with good results. It is often used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, and symptoms related to trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. Significant work has been done in this area by Mark Reinecke and his colleagues at Northwestern University in the Clinical Psychology program in Chicago. Paula Barrett and her colleagues have also validated CBT as effective in a group setting for the treatment of youth and child anxiety using the Friends Program she authored. This CBT program has been recognized as best practice for the treatment of anxiety in children by the World Health Organization. CBT has been used with children and adolescents to treat a variety of conditions with good success.^[28][29]. CBT is also used as a treatment modality for children who have experienced complex posttraumatic stress disorder and chronic maltreatment^[30].

Research

Cognitive behavioral therapy most closely allies with the scientist–practitioner model, in which clinical practice and research is informed by a scientific perspective, clear operationalization of the problem, an emphasis on measurement (and measurable changes in cognition and behavior) and measurable goal-attainment.

Further reading

• Beck, A. (1993). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. NY: Penguin. ISBN 9780452009288
• Willson R., & Branch R. (2006). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies. For Dummies.
• Dryden W. (1994). 'Ten Steps to Positive Living'. Sheldon Press
• Burns D. (1999). Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy (Revised Edition). Avon. ISBN 0-380-81033-6
• Ellis A. (2001). Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1573928793
• Tanner S., & Ball J (2001). Beating the Blues: A Self-help Approach to Overcoming Depression. ISBN 0-646-36622-X
• McCullough J.P. (2003). Treatment for Chronic Depression: Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP). Guilford Press. ISBN 1-57230-965-2
• Albano M., & Kearney C. (2000). When children refuse school: a cognitive behavioral therapy approach: Therapist guide. Psychological Corporation.
• Deblinger, E. & Heflin, A. (1996) . Treating sexually abused children and their non-offending parents: a cognitive behavioral approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
• Leahy, R.L. and Holland, SJ. (2000). Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders. New York: Guilford

References

External links

• Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT)
• Academy of Cognitive Therapy
• The Albert Ellis Institute
• National Association of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists
• The Jove Institute
• Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research
• William Glasser Institute
• The Lazarus Institute
• The British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies

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