Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

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Revision as of 14:53, 29 April 2010 by 128.97.66.134 (Talk) (Interventions)

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Basic Characteristics

  • Description

Comprehensive Behavioral Therapy is based on a cognitive science model of psychological change that aims to promote retrievable memories of adaptive responses that can compete and suppress memories of previously learned maladaptive responses in "real world" conditions. As such, the target goals, such as social skill development, need to developed with some procedure for enhancing memory retrieval. Learning should occur in the actual place where socialization takes place rather than in simulated social situations. Deep semantic processing increases the chance of memory retrieval for a specific memory, so questions that incorporate hints of the correct answer can be posed to children to encourage them to put the correct answers in their own words.1

CBT and anxiety

In a randomized controlled trial, a CBT program decreased anxiety in children with ASD. Anxiety disorders are associated with greater impairments in social responsiveness and repetitive behaviors in children with ASD. It has been proposed that ASD children who suffer from anxiety may be more likely to benefit from CBT intervention techniques.1


  • History

Many social skills training programs have had trouble changing core autistic symptoms such as social communication deficits.1Additionally, few studies have shown whether skills taught in social skills training programs are generalizable2


Criticisms


Interventions

One study found that participants had significant improvement on the Social Responsiveness Scale after Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These improvements were maintained 3 months after post-treatment. Additionally, researchers found that anxiety reduction correlated with autism symptom improvement, and vice versa, which suggests that the severity of autistic symptoms could be connected to anxiety for children with both ASD and anxiety disorders.1





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References

1. Wood JJ et. al. Brief report: effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on parent-reported autism symptoms in school-age children with high-functioning autism. PMID 19562475

2. Kasari C et. al. New directions in behavioral treatment of autism spectrum disorders.Curr Opin Neurol. 2010 Apr;23(2):137-43. PMID 20160648


Related Information

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