AO3: Addiction

Question 1

CBT for Addiction: Research to support effectiveness of CBT for treating addiction

Answer 1

• E: In 2006, Petry did research and found that gamblers who received 8 CBT sessions and attended Gamblers Anonymous (GA) gambled significantly less after 12 months than those in the control group who only attended the GA
• E: Supports CBT as an effective treatment for addiction as it suggests that CBT has long term benefits for gambling. The use of a control group increases the study’s internal validity and strengthens the conclusions on CBT as an effective treatment as control groups mean it can be inferred that it was only CBT that impacted the results. However, this study can only be generalised to gambling addictions which have a huge cognitive element and not other addictions e.g. nicotine addictions so CBT may be more beneficial for this type of addictions than other addictions

Question 2

CBT for Addiction: Limitation is it offers a reductionist approach for treating addiction

Answer 2

• E: CBT only focuses on targeting irrational thought processes and maladaptive behaviours when treating addiction
• E: It only looks at treating addiction from a cognitive level of explanation which is limited as according to the biopsychosocial model of psychology, there isn’t one direct pathway to addiction since addiction develops from interactions between multiple levels of explanation, including biological, social and neurochemical explanations. CBT doesn’t account for any other levels of explanation other than cognitive and this means its treatment for addiction is limited. It is better to treat addiction holistically, looking into all factors impacting addiction

Question 3

CBT for Addiction: Might be the most cost effective way of reducing addiction

Answer 3

• E: CBT involves a limited amount of session and has multiple formats it can be delivered in (e.g. groups settings, over the phone, online)
• E: Talking therapies are generally more expensive since they require trained professionals and multiple sessions. CBT however, can be delivered to a larger amount of people at a lower cost. However, CBT is still likely to be more expensive than drug therapies since the funding for it is limited.