Re:Questioning the Effectiveness of Cognitive Therapy

Fred, you say "I’m not saying CT doesn’t 'work'. But, do the various CT efficacy studies prove CT is effective? The problem is that the CT efficacy studies can never be double blind (per Seligman), I doubt they can truly be single blind, and most/all of the evaluation typically involves people who want CT to succeed. Plus there is the very important 'therapeutic alliance' element in CT effectiveness. So I’m not convinced CT’s more effective than placebo (placebo is 70+% effective under certain situations)."

I have two thoughts:

First, you have a good point in noting that efficacy studies do not prove effectiveness. However, take a look at the effectiveness studies posted earlier in this forum. There is a pretty good body of research showing that CT is indeed effective with a wide range of problems.

Second, have you found any placebos that are 70+% effective with clinical depression, agoraphobia, etc. and which produce lasting improvement? CT has been compared with pill placebos, placebo psychotherapies, and alternative treatment approaches. While it is true that this research isn't perfect, CT does pretty well in these comparisons even when the researchers are blind and when the alternative treatments are conducted by therapists who want the alternative treatments to succeed as well.

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