Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis and Substance Abuse

Here is a recent article about how groups in Australia are using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for treatment of substance abuse in people suffering from psychosis.

People with psychotic disorders as well as substance abuse disorders may gain some relief from their symptoms with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), investigators report.

Dr Amanda Baker (University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia) and co-workers investigated the benefit of this treatment in 130 patients suffering from a psychotic disorder (severe depression, bipolar mania, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or other psychosis). All of the participants also reported extreme alcohol, cannabis, and/or amphetamine use in the preceding month.

The participants either received 10 sessions of motivational interviewing plus CBT or standard care from their clinician.

In the CBT program, the patients were set goals in each session and were taught techniques for managing their substance use disorder more effectively and how to identify triggers and avoid situations that could lead to substance use.

Read the Full story: CBT promising for substance abuse in patients with psychosis

More information on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:

Treatment of Schizophrenia via Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Review of CBT for psychosis - Harvard University Presentation/video