A recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that CBT was no better than psychoanalysis. On the plausible assumption that psychoanalysis doesn’t work (better than a placebo), it follows that CBT doesn’t work either.
For discussion, see this post by Scott Alexander (Yvain).
Some versions of CBT for anxiety and DBT for borderline also seem to just be basic coping skills about getting some distance from your emotions. I think it’s likely that these have some small effects (I know a study above found no effect for CBT on anxiety, but it was by a notorious partisan of psychoanalysis and I will temporarily defy the data).
I’m less confident of that now, but it’s still a great deal better than nothing (and I think it’s probably better than psychoanalysis at teaching coping skills for this sort of anxiety).
I also think that the technique I suggested can improve the accuracy of your predictions, which is a good thing independently of whether it improves anxiety or not.
A recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that CBT was no better than psychoanalysis. On the plausible assumption that psychoanalysis doesn’t work (better than a placebo), it follows that CBT doesn’t work either.
For discussion, see this post by Scott Alexander (Yvain).
Please edit the above to read “by Scott Alexander”—the blog doesn’t carry his name for patient privacy reasons.
Sorry about that. I have edited the comment.
Also, from Scott’s post:
Do you still believe that “CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) has a strong evidence base”?
I’m less confident of that now, but it’s still a great deal better than nothing (and I think it’s probably better than psychoanalysis at teaching coping skills for this sort of anxiety).
I also think that the technique I suggested can improve the accuracy of your predictions, which is a good thing independently of whether it improves anxiety or not.