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Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Psychology: AQA A Level, topic 17.2.3

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Addiction

Cognitive behavioural therapy can be used to treat addiction. By working with a therapist, the patient tries to alter their thought processes related to their addiction.

CBT

CBT

  • Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) involves a therapist working with a patient to address their thinking (cognitions).
  • By adjusting their own thinking, they can adjust their behaviour.
  • CBT has been used to treat things like depression and eating disorders.
  • CBT has also been shown to be effective in the treatment of addictions.
Smoking

Smoking

  • For example, a therapist may question a smoker's thought of “I cannot cope without cigarettes”.
    • That thought leads the addict to the behaviour of smoking.
  • But if the therapist can help the patient cognitively restructure that thought to something like “I can cope without cigarettes”, then the behaviour should change as a result.
Carroll et al. (1994)

Carroll et al. (1994)

  • CBT is often most successful when used in conjunction with other treatments.
    • For example, nicotine replacement therapy in place of cigarettes.
  • Carroll et al. (1994) looked at the effectiveness of CBT.
Participants of Carroll et al. (1994)

Participants of Carroll et al. (1994)

  • They compared two groups of patients:
    • Group one received CBT.
    • Group two received a non-specific form of psychotherapy.
  • The patients were cocaine addicts.
Results of Carroll et al. (1994)

Results of Carroll et al. (1994)

  • The results showed that both therapies were effective at reducing the symptoms of depression in the cocaine abusers.
  • CBT was shown to be more effective than the non-specific psychotherapy at reducing addiction.
  • In a one-year follow-up, CBT was shown to be more successful once again.

Weaknesses of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

There are several weaknesses of using CBT to reduce addiction.

Time

Time

  • Like aversion therapy, CBT takes a long time.
  • The addict must be willing to commit to the time frame.
Commitment

Commitment

  • CBT takes a lot of dedication, thought, focus, and attention.
  • Again, the addict has to be willing to commit to that.
  • As well, those that exhibit addictive behaviours may struggle with things like focus and attention because of the nature of their addiction.
  • This means they may need some other form of treatment (drug therapy) first before initiating CBT.
Difficulty of changing thought processes

Difficulty of changing thought processes

  • CBT involves changing thought processes.
  • These thought processes tend to be embedded in the addict, so they can be incredibly challenging to change.
  • Again, the addict must be motivated to follow through.

Test yourself on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

  • What does CBT stand for?

  • What has CBT NOT been shown to be an effective treatment for?

  • Which of these is NOT a weakness of CBT?

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