Talk Therapy Shows Results For Kids With OCD." Well there is a big difference between the "talk therapy" many parents send their kids to and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which this research addressed.
They write, " A new study shows using talk therapy in conjunction with medication can produce better results for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder in children." Simple talk therapy doesn't involve the necessary components of "argumentation," "teaching logical thinking" and "behavioural-exposure-homework" which are the critical elements of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that make it work with OCD. And often kids end up with therapists who have no experience with either CBT or OCD, wasting time and money.
"OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) can affect up to 1 in 50 kids and teens, according to background research from the study. The anxiety disorder often causes children to become preoccupied with whether something is harmful or dangerous, or with thoughts that something bad may happen. Rituals, or compulsions, are adopted to try to ward these "bad things" off."
Dr. Judith Beck, President of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, says, "Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a time-limited form of psychotherapy used to treat mental disorders...In the context of solving your current problems, you learn skills, such as how to correct your unrealistic or unhelpful thinking and how to modify your behavior to reach your goals."
That's not what usually goes on with a therapist in simple "talk therapy." All therapy is not the same. Now for many issues different forms of therapy have been found effective, often as effective as CBT. But not in this case (with OCD) and not in this research. The research was specific. It's like saying, "Pills found to cure headaches!." While pills? How many? How effective?
Another 2007 study drew similar conclusions about the benefit of CBT for adults with OCD. "Specifically, the data showed that patients receiving any form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) had significantly fewer obsessive-compulsive symptoms post-treatment than subjects receiving treatment as usual." (Reuters)
To sum up, it's CBT in this research. Other forms of therapy may help with other issues, but the research on OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is specifically about CBT, and most likely it works because of components of CBT not found in many other forms of therapy.
Headlines matter, because many people only remember the headlines, and others filter everything they read through the headline. This same research was written up in a number of medical journals and webpages, they all noted it was "Behavior Therapy," that was used. As the past 50 years or more of psychology has been a battle between conventional "talk therapy" like analysis ,"Rogerian Counselling, non-directive counselling" and the new "behaviour therapies" it's amazing that a newspaper would headline an article and use the term "talk therapy" - usually meant to describe analysis, Rogerian and other forms of non-directive talk therapy rather than the correct term used in the medical journals, "Behavior Theray" or, in this case, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy." The wrong headline leads parents to seeking the wrong therapy.
For more information about the services I provide my web page can be found at www.relatedminds.com, http://www.relatedminds.com/depression. Other information on my practice can be found at: http://Therapists.Psychologytoday.com/70682, http://www.bcpsychologist.org/users/jimroche, and http://psyris.com/drjimroche
