Gendis Learns Psychology: CBT and SRI

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach: a talking therapy. CBT aims to solve problems concerning dysfunctional emotions, behaviors and cognitions through a goal-oriented, systematic procedure in the present. The title is used in diverse ways to designatebehavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and to refer to therapy based upon a combination of basicbehavioral and cognitive research.

There is empirical evidence that CBT is effective for the treatment of a variety of problems, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, and psychotic disorders. Treatment is sometimes manualized, with specific technique-driven brief, direct, and time-limited treatments for specific psychological disorders. CBT is used in individual therapy as well as group settings, and the techniques are often adapted for self-help applications. Some clinicians and researchers are more cognitive oriented (e.g. cognitive restructuring), while others are more behaviorally oriented (in vivo exposure therapy). Other interventions combine both (e.g. imaginal exposure therapy).

CBT was primarily developed through an integration of behavior therapy with cognitive therapy. While rooted in rather different theories, these two traditions found common ground in focusing on the "here and now", and on alleviating symptoms. Many CBT treatment programs for specific disorders have been evaluated for efficacy; the health-care trend of evidence-based treatment, where specific treatments for symptom-based diagnoses are recommended, has favored CBT over other approaches such as psychodynamic treatments. In the United Kingdom, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends CBT as the treatment of choice for a number of mental health difficulties, including post-traumatic stress disorder, OCD, bulimia nervosa, and clinical depression

Anxiety disorders

A basic concept in some CBT treatments of anxiety disorders is in vivo exposure—a gradual exposure to the actual, feared stimulus. This treatment is based on the theory that the fear response has been classically conditioned and that avoidance negatively reinforces and maintains that fear. This "two-factor" model is often credited to O. Hobart Mowrer. Through exposure to the stimulus, this conditioning can be unlearned; this is referred to as extinction and habituation. CBT also looks at an individual's way of thinking and the way that he or she reacts to certain habits or behaviors. A specific phobia, such as fear of spiders, can often be treated with in vivo exposure and therapist modeling in one session. Obsessive compulsive disorder is typically treated with exposure with response prevention.

Social phobia, also known as social anxiety, has often been treated with exposure coupled with cognitive restructuring, such as in Heimberg's group therapy protocol. Evidence suggests that cognitive interventions improve the result of social phobia treatment. CBT has been shown to be effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, and possibly more effective than pharmacological treatments in the long term. In fact, one study of patients undergoing benzodiazepine withdrawal who had a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder showed that those who received CBT had a very high success rate of discontinuing benzodiazepines compared to those who did not receive CBT. This success rate was maintained at 12-month follow up. Furthermore in patients who had discontinuedbenzodiazepines, it was found that they no longer met the diagnosis of general anxiety disorder and that patients no longer meeting the diagnosis of general anxiety disorder was higher in the group who received CBT. Thus CBT can be an effective tool to add to a gradual benzodiazepine dosage reduction program leading to improved and sustained mental health benefits.

"Dalam tataran dunia psikologi klinis, terapi kognitif perilakuan atau sering kita sebut sebagai CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) merupakan salah satu metode psikoterapi yang paling fenomenal. Sebagai sebuah terapi yang bertujuan untuk memecahkan masalah tentang disfungsional emosi, perilaku dan kognisi melalui prosedur berorientasi pada tujuan, metode ini dikenal dengan tahapan-tahapannya yang sistematis, goal oriented, dan bisa cukup leluasa dikombinasikan dengan metode lain untuk mewujudkan proses psikoterapi yang integratif."

Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor

A serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) is a type of drug that acts as a reuptake inhibitor for the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) by blocking the action of the serotonin transporter (SERT). This in turn leads to increased extracellular concentrations of serotonin and, therefore, an increase in serotonergic neurotransmission.

SRIs are not synonymous with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), as the latter term is usually used to describe the class of antidepressants of the same name, and, because SRIs, unlike SSRIs, can be either selective or nonselective in their action. For example, cocaine, which nonselectively inhibits the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine, can be called an SRI, but not an SSRI.

Indication