Behavioral and Cognitive‐Behavioral Psychotherapy

AbstractThis chapter describes the development and evolution of Behavior Therapy during the 1950s and 1960s. Although Cognitive Therapy began somewhat independently of BT, it is argued that during the 1970s the basic scientific assumptions between BT and CT led to their integration in CBT. One of the fundamental hallmarks of this approach to clinical work is the investigation of the efficacy and effectiveness of the interventions, so the remainder of the chapter reviews the treatment outcome studies with a variety of disorders. For historical reasons, the review section first discusses anxiety disorders, and reports that various forms of CBT are among the treatments of choice for most of these disorders. Both BT and CBT were reported to be effective for both eating disorders and obesity. Behavioral marital therapy for married depressed individuals and short‐term individual BT and CBT have been demonstrated to be effective for clinical depressive disorders. Both individual CBT and behaviorally based family therapy have been effective when combined with psychotropic medications for both bipolar disorder and various forms of schizophrenia. Future work needs to focus on maintenance of intervention effects, Axis II disorders (which to have a major impact on relapse), and the role of emotion in the therapeutic process.