Mental Health Solutions Blog

In my practice I usually focus on one of three types of therapies depending on the diagnosis and particular characteristics of the patient. For the most neurotic types of patients I find CBT to be the most effective. Neurotic types tend to take too much responsibility for the problems of the world. They tend to over think things. I find that CBT helps them be more realistic in their thinking process. These kinds of patients also often benefit from interpersonal therapy where we focus on relationships with people, communication skills and problem solving skills. For the more disorganized and psychotic patients I find that CBT is often too challenging for the patient. It is hard for them to organize themselves, do homework and challenge themselves without further disintegration of the ego. For these types of patients I tend to stick with interpersonal therapy, problem solving and supportive therapy.

There has been abundant research in recent years that demonstrate the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in the treatment of numerous mental health disorders. There was even one study that showed that it helped in reducing chronic pain syndromes. This begs the question whether or not CBT is the best psychotherapy out there for mental health disorders? Some believe that to be the case for some conditions.

In the August 2010 issue of the Clinical Psychology Review it reports an analytic meta-review of the subject. They compared CBT to psychodynamic therapy, interpersonal therapy and supportive therapy. Overall, what they found was that CBT was superior to psychodynamic therapy, although not interpersonal or supportive therapies, at post-treatment and at follow-up. Confirming my suspicions, they found CBT to be superior to the other therapies for 2 classes of conditions: anxiety and depressive disorders. For my practice, this is the most valuable therapy as I see more anxious and depressed types of patients than anything else. Probably makes up at least 90% of my patients.

Interestingly, my observation is that it helps almost everyone. I use it in marital therapy with good results! I even tend to use it on my own marriage–disguising it of course! I find that spouses don’t like to be what they call “psychoanalyzed.” So, I continue to do it but try to leave out all the lingo. Shhhh! Don’t tell my husband!

Tags: CBT, comparison of psychotherapies, neurotic and depressive disorders