Appropriateness of Cognitive Therapy

Ways in which it is acceptable are when;

• People who have irrational beliefs tend to form conclusions which are less functional than those with rational beliefs. 
• Cognitive therapy is also based on the assumption that individuals with OCD have an exaggerated sense of responsibilty . 
• It has fairly low drop out rates.

Ways in which cognitive therapy is innapropraite are when; 

• The majority of OCD patients have a mixture of cognitive and behavioural difficulties, cognitive therapy only focuses on the cognitive side. This a reductionist approach which doesnt take into account all symptoms . 
• Attention is not paid to the origin of the dysfunctional beliefs. 
• It involves significant patient efforts- not all patients are prepared to take this effort.

ELLIS believed that sometimes people who claimed to be following principles of CT were not putting their revised beliefs into action, and therefore the therapy was not effective.

WILHELM ET AL (05) found a significant improvement in 15 patients who used CT alone over 14 weeks, as measured on Y-BOCS. 

JONES AND MENZIES found a 20 percent improvement in symptoms from a group of patients having CT over 8 sessions.