Schizophrenia: CBT

Question 1

AO1

Answer 1

• Challenge maladaptive/faulty thinking
• One-to-one sessions each week
• The therapist and the patient work collaboratively to discuss the symptoms
• They focus on the experience of symptoms and the specific symptoms which are causing problems in their life
• The symptoms are focused on rationally and they are accepted as part of the patients experience
• Operates on ABC model (looking at activating events, beliefs about those events and the consequences of those beliefs)

Question 2

AO1- Belief modification

Answer 2

Where delusional thinking is challenged directly and tested against reality, the aim is to make them seem to be only one possible version of events

Question 3

AO1- Reattributing

Answer 3

auditory hallucinations. They first look at the attributes of the voice (number, volume, gender, tone etc). Then the content (patient records this between session) Focus on the patients beliefs and thoughts about the voices….trying to make them see them as self-generated

Question 4

AO1- Normalising

Answer 4

De-stigmatising of the psychotic experience and they look at them rationally. The cognitive distortions are discussed alongside any stressful events which may have triggered them- this is to ‘normalise’ them.- this ‘des-catastrophises’ them. This might be mixed with evidential disputing, alternative explanations and challenging faulty thinking

Question 5

+AO3- Hoffman et al (2012)

Answer 5

looked at 106 meta-analysis (so meta-analysed other meta-analyses. It was shown to be very effective. However it mainly looked at anxiety, anger control and general stress rather than Schizophrenia (though some studies on that were included)

Question 6

+AO3- Chadwick and Lowe (1994)

Answer 6

they found that 10 out of 12 patients showed a decrease in their conviction/belief in their delusions and 5 of the 12 managed to reject their delusions at the end of their therapy as measured via self-report.

Question 7

+AO3- Bentall et al (1994a)

Answer 7

looked at reattribution of auditory hallucinations and found 3 out of 6 patients did reattribute the voices to themselves while the other 3 reported less hallucinations

Question 8

+AO3- Empowering

Answer 8

There is a collaborative relationship so the patient is not powerless in this therapy

Question 9

+AO3- Effective

Answer 9

Tailored to the individual needs of the patient

Question 10

+AO3- No side-effect

Answer 10

in comparison to drug therapies

Question 11

+AO3- Quick and Easy

Answer 11

Can assist in acute phases of schizophrenia in a short period of time

Question 12

-AO3- Sensky (2002)

Answer 12

had some patients undergoing CBT (some from Newcastle! County Durham and London) and a control group doing ‘unspecific befriending’. Both interventions resulted in significant reductions in positive and negative symptoms and depression. BUT At the nine-month follow-up evaluation, patients who had received cognitive therapy showed greater improvements on all measures.

Question 13

-AO3- distressing

Answer 13

they focus on distressing symptoms like hallucinations and delusions…they have to question themselves etc which can be upsetting

Question 14

-AO3- Social control

Answer 14

may be an issue (as we are trying to alter thought patterns)

Question 15

-AO3- Testability

Answer 15

Difficulties in measuring cognition mean that it is not empirical