Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Regarding the overall pattern of results from Magill and colleagues (2019), CBT was most effective at early follow-up (defined as 1–6 months post-treatment) compared to late follow-up (defined as 8+ months post-treatment) and had the largest effect sizes when compared to minimal (inactive) treatment. Effect sizes for substance use quantity were generally larger than substance use frequency. Negative outcomes such as days used or number of times used per day were reverse-scored such that a positive effect estimate would reflect a positive treatment outcome.

• Training in assertiveness involves two steps, a minimal effective response and escalation.
• It was unclear whether Irvin et al., 1999 required randomized clinical trials or not.
• If an arm of the trial did not contribute an effect contrast, the study-level sample size was adjusted.
• Studies were included if they targeted adult populations (age ≥ 18) meeting criteria for an alcohol or other drug use disorder (DSM III-R through V; American Psychiatric Association, 1987; 1994; 2000; 2013) or problematic use (e.g., Saunders et al., 1993).
• The patient is encouraged to respond to these automatic thoughts using a variety of verbal responses, that is different from already established problem behaviours.

Behavior Modification

One particular skill is the importance of gaining a greater awareness of our automatic thoughts so we can examine both the accuracy, as well as the helpfulness, of such thoughts. There are a variety of helpful CBT tools to help mental health practitioners in their work with patients, including the Beck Depression Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Personality Belief Questionnaire, and more. To clarify key terms used in this manuscript, the term substance use is defined as taking any illicit psychoactive substance or improper use Pof any prescribed or over the counter medication. Substance use disorders as used here will refer to substance abuse and substance dependence. Symptoms of substance abuse reflect the external consequences of problematic use such as failure to fulfill role obligations, legal problems, physically hazardous use, and interpersonal difficulty resulting from use.

Alcohol use disorders

A CBT therapist will also teach you new ways to manage your stress, reduce your cravings and/or risky behaviours, manage your emotions more effectively and adopt healthier coping skills. By challenging and restructuring harmful, negative or distorted thoughts, CBT helps in treating addictions because it supports people to find healthier ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Having more options available, means they’re less likely to use addictive substances or engage in compulsive behaviours. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a proven type of therapy that’s frequently used in addiction treatment. It has many Cognitive Behavioral Therapy benefits and is often delivered alongside the 12-step programme and other therapies. In conclusion, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a highly effective, evidence-based approach for treating substance abuse.

• From the onset of the CBT sessions, creating a self-awareness becomes one of the first goals for the psychotherapist.
• This resulted in 5 eligible meta-analyses for inclusion in the current evaluation.
• Although Behavioral Couples Therapy is a form of CBT, modules administered and hypothesized mechanisms of change differ between traditional (individual or group) CBT and Behavioral Couples Therapy (McHugh et al., 2010).
• Multiple clinical trials in different treatment settings have indicated CBT4CBT’s efficacy at reducing rates of alcohol and drug use when provided as an add-on to standard addiction treatment, as well as when provided with minimal clinical monitoring (i.e., virtual stand-alone).
• There is also some indication that individuals gain greater knowledge of cognitive and behavioral concepts from CBT4CBT than from standard addiction treatment, or even therapist-delivered CBT, which may play a role in its efficacy.

Find Support

To add clinical utility to this review, effect size data will be summarized using Cohen’s generic benchmarks of “small” (d ~ 0.20), “medium” (d ~ 0.50), and “large” (d ~ 0.80).18 In discussion, we provide final remarks on for whom, how, and where CBT may work best. An important aspect of CBT is identifying thoughts that support continued substance abuse or other addictive behaviors (often referred to as cognitive distortions) and learning to replace these thoughts with more beneficial ones. Patients engage in role play or rehearsal that is intended to help them cope with cravings for the addictive substance or behavior, or with high-risk situations, such as being invited to an occasion at which the substance of abuse will be available. Patients are often assigned homework, during which they can practice new thought patterns or skills learned during therapy sessions.