Effectiveness of CBT

• STRENGTH:

  Effective at treating serious psychological disorders

  Evidence:Kuipers et al 

  -60 medication resistant schizophrenia randomly allocated CBT + standard care or standard care alone

  -9 months later: 50% in CBT improved compared to, 31% in the other condition

  -1 person in CBT got worse, in other condition 3 got worse, 1 committed suicide

  Explain: CBT with another normal care can be very effective for treating schizophrenia where medication fails

  -limit potential for suicide 

  -effective at preventing serious consequences from condition
• STRENGTH:

  Effective at modifying criminal behaviour

  Evidence:Landberger and Lipsey

  -58 studies of CBT with offenders

  -20 used anger management, element of anger control was significantly related to an improvement in behaviour

  Explain: AM is effective in reducing anger + aggression

  -benefits on both offender and society

  -help reduce reoffending of anger related crimes
• WEAKNESS:

  Not effective when ‘’input’’ is realistic stressor

  Evidence: Simon 

  -argues cause of depression or anxiety can be genuine negative life events e.g. bereavement

  -CBT works on dysfunctional thought processes

  Explain: CBT only effective in situations where the problem is result of irrational thoughts to not so serious events
• WEAKNESS:

  Not for everyone

  Evidence: Tarrier

  -45% of his sample of schizophrenias refused to cooperate with CBT + dropped out

  -Also in terms of criminal behaviour some offenders do not like to reflect on their way of thinking and so may drop out of AM

  Explain:Not appropriate for all individuals 

  -requires the ability to commit time + effort to progress

  -willingness to reflect + challenge thought processes
• Effectiveness-Conclusions

  • Dominant therapy used in clinical psychology + considered effective for treating a range of mental health issues
  • Divided opinion as to whether its effective at treating root cause, some say it only helps to control/challenge irrational thoughts (DA addresses root cause)
  • A multi-treatment programme alongside drugs to increase effectiveness
  • More expensive in the short term, cost effective in long term