Reducing Addiction: CBT

Question 1

what are the key ideas about CBT?

Answer 1

• faulty thinking will be changed
• Ellis ABC, Beck negative triad
• goal- orientated with patients + therapist
• homework to challenge beliefs

Question 2

what does CBT do?

Answer 2

• aims to help think differently
• change thoughts + beliefs + stay away from addiction in future
• therapist forge trusting relationships
• triggers identified + strategies to develop will power
• taught to develop strong sense of self control
• offered through number of needs led

Question 3

what are the needs led skills taught in CBT?

Answer 3

• drug refusal skills
• relaxation skills (meditation, running)
• problem solving
• assertiveness training (‘say no’ roleplay)
• relapse prevention training (making excuses to say no)
• cognitive restructuring (homework)

Question 4

what research support is there for CBT?

Answer 4

• Petry
• recurited gamblers through media advertising radnomly allocated to GA or GA + CBT
• those who had CBT with GA gambled significantly less after 12 months
• better than covert sensitisaiton (short term), shows effectiveness

Question 5

why was the research support criticised?

Answer 5

• Cowlishaw
• conducted meta-analysis of gamblers with CBT + found reduced gamblers significantly for 3 months.
• after 9 months no difference between CBT group + control group.
• therefore only short term benefit

Question 6

drop out rates

Answer 6

• 6 times higher than other therapy
• CBT is demanding therapy where it requires lot of effort (homework) over many sessions
• some seek CBT due to life- crisis + when that is resolved they give up the therapy
• restricts the success of CBT

Question 7

can CBT treat the underlying causes of addiction?

Answer 7

• targets origins of addiction eg activating event as it acknowledges past eg abuse
• aversion therapy doesnt acknowledge this, masks root cause
• therefore, hollistic as acknowledges whole person

Question 8

CBT uses a variety of techniques why is this a strength?

Answer 8

• using variety of techniques + often combined with other treatments eg drug therapies
• therapy is offered through needs led way where therapy targets individual specifically
• CBT has high success rate bc uses hollistic approach
• counter- dont know which technique is working= hard to measure success