INDIVIDUAL COGNITIVE-BEHAVIOR THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF HALLUCINATIONS AND DELUSIONS - A REVIEW

The limitations of biochemical treatments in reducing the severity of hallucinations and delusions has led to an increased interest in the i nvestigation of psychological treatments for these symptoms. These inv estigations have spanned the last 4 decades and have covered a range o f psychological approaches from psychoanalytically oriented psychother apy to behavioral approaches. More recently, findings that some psycho therapies are not effective treatments for psychosis and that cognitiv e-behavior therapy can be an effective treatment for neurotic disorder s have led to increasing interest in the investigation of the effectiv eness of cognitive-behavior therapy for psychosis. This review describ es and evaluates the research on the cognitive-behavioral treatment of hallucinations and delusions and describes the cognitive models from which the treatments have developed. The conclusion is that, on the wh ole, the literature provides fairly strong evidence for the efficacy o f cognitive-behavioral approaches in the management of chronic psychot ic disorders and associated symptoms, although there are a number of a reas where further development is necessary. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.