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comments from readers

Cybertiger
30 April 2008

no

But there’s certainly a killing to be made in selling CBT to the Americans

Carl Jones
30 April 2008

no

It has to be a big NO....look at Amerikans.lol

npgdavies
30 April 2008

yes

it depends on how you think about it!

Abracadabra
01 May 2008

yes

CBT is so often bandied about as quick fix and cheap, to the detriment of itself and other therapies which are seen by comparison as lengthy and expensive. Used as a tool for recognising cognitive deficits, both CBT and REBT can be useful; but no single therapeutic model should be used in complete isolation.

swatantra nandanwar
01 May 2008

yes

I might if I knew what it meant.

tommydurkin
01 May 2008

no

CBT Bah!, just a targeted kick up the Ar**e is all you need

yolande de morgan
02 May 2008

no

I have never tried it!

suell
02 May 2008

yes

yes, but it also depends which condition the therapy is trying to address - interventions are always 'horses for courses'. Sue Lloyd

django
02 May 2008

yes

it helped me recover from a series of major traumas and loss in my life.

Jay
02 May 2008

yes

and so do many other therapies - the fact that CBT works shouldn't exclude the provision of different types of therapies/counselling for different types of people - an integrative and/or pluralistic approach will serve people far better than a one-size-fits-all approach

Thyagarajan
02 May 2008

yes

simple awareness..increased awareness of one's own actions and behaviour brings about a softened response to one's environment and circumstances.

blank
03 May 2008

no

no.

Flopsy
04 May 2008

no

I had CBT to help cope with (and I was told help heal) me from a major illness. It didn't help as the therapist couldn't find any "unhelpful" beliefs and was well out of her depth.
CBT was like the popular psychology and "womens magazine" articles on how to run your life.

There can't be many people left that are so unsophesticated.

kangaroo
04 May 2008

no

In Belgium, they believed the hype about CBT for CFS and set up rehabilitation clinics for CFS. People had CBT/GET (Graded Exercise Therapy). They also had advisors with regard to employment (to help increase the amount of paid work that the people did). Around 1000 people did it but not everyone completed the course.

If you looked at the questionnaire data (there are lots of it), maybe on average 50% looked like people had improved and 30% had got worse.

However if you look at the hours worked, people were actually working less at the end and at follow-up than at the start!

At the start of the course, people worked on average 18.3% of a 38 hour week (6.954hours) at the end they worked, 14.9% of a 38-hour week (5.662 hours) (i.e. 18.5% less). At follow-up, 6 months after the course, people were working 16.7% of a 38-hour week (i.e. still less than at the start). The people also did exercise tests and the authors of the report said there was neglible effect on the results. They also said there was no body who was cured.

In the studies that are published which claim to show CBT helps CFS, they have basically just used questionnaires so you don't see the real figures about how it's not making much difference to people's work capacity.

I know less about CBT in other situations but it makes me question some of the hype.

Paula K.
05 May 2008

no

NO, too much of a quick fix, it all comes back later. not enough space to address underlying causes. Clients will feel better for a while only to return for more.

Fred
05 May 2008

no

People should look and see how many of these psychiatrists promoting CBT have links with the health insurance industry so if somone is labelled as being mentally ill they can get away with payig out less money

Kevin
05 May 2008

no

I had CBT for obsessive compulsive disorder and it was a joke. I never found out why I did it, how I could stop or how how I could control my obsessive behaviour. There were never any serious answers.

nawawimohamad
05 May 2008

yes

Why not? This aspect of the human nature is clearly categorised in the Maslow's Hierachy of Needs.However it works only in certain cases (not all cases) and and like all ailments it will recur. Thus various approaches are needed with different time frames.

arthur
05 May 2008

no

NO

You wouldn't expect something to work that has no basis in the scientific realities and current understanding of cognitive behavioural functioning, never mind the mean realities of life. The manufactured scientistic claims of CBT which the therapy researchers concoct about other people and their motivations therefore tells you more about the motivations of the therapists and therapy researchers than their subjects. Professor Wessely's claim that 'randomised controlled trials, which remain the gold standard of evidence, have shown that CBT is effective' illustrates just what a dire and apathetic state some areas of research and peer review and funding are in within the UK, rather than how 'effective' CBT is.
But it also reveals a society going in the wrong direction, evading responsibility by failing to deal with it's social and economic problems, instead subtlety blaming its unwary victims, and exploiting vulnerable 'patient satisfaction' as an outcome rather than anything remotely meaningful.

Reilly
05 May 2008

no

No
From what I've seen of it the hype is not backed up by any meaningful evidence, emperor and clothes come to mind.

TwistedWitch
05 May 2008

no

NO, like the rest of the psychiatric approach to physical illness it is not only a load of psychobabble but a huge crock of shit. No one in their right mind would tell a victim of severe burns, or someone with a terminal case of cancer that the sensations they were feeling were all in their mind and that a positive mind would create a healed body. Prof Wessley and his ilk should be struck down with a serious debilitating illness and then dragged kicking and screaming from their sick beds, locked up in one of their own units and then made to perform physical acts that would drain them of all their energy and leave them feeling like the walking dead and then come back and tell us it works!

PerivascularRascal
06 May 2008

no

In a recent trial to see if CBT could improve neurocognitive problems, participants reported that they felt improved. However, the objective testing found there was no change, which seemed to surprise the trialists. This seems to confirm that a large part of how the CBT uber-hype results work is by convincing (see: brainwashing) people into an artifical contentment with their situation. The practical ramifications is that these people may go on to overestimate their abilities in job applications etc, or not seek out medical attention when they should. And as we know from welfare reform, CBT is a good tool for keeping people cheap.

Helen Heenan
06 May 2008

yes

For some behavioural problems it works. It's like any treatment. The diagnosis must be right, and the prescription appropriate.

William
06 May 2008

no

dunno, me brain aint wired for syco babble

MESOMOCO
06 May 2008

yes

I have benefited from it, it does work, but it is only of any use ( I believe ) once you're well enough to benefit from it ... so medication first, then CBT to build on the wellness, and ... CBT is of most use in preventing relapse, ... training people to stay well once well. Biblio-CBT works too, if your well enough to concentrate on reading the books (such as "Overcoming Depression", a CBT Self-help Book by Paul Gilbert) ....

Warm regards, Richard, MESOMOCO CIC, http://www.mesomoco.org.uk the non-profit mental health social enterprise.

:) Now on to entering the New Media Awards ...

JackieK
06 May 2008

no

It works in treating the symptoms of the problem but not the problem itself.

alka
07 May 2008

yes

yes, but it only works with well trained practitioners alongside other treatment... as one person has already said, when you are well enough to engage, and to be part of the battle against relapse.