The Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses

By Stefan G. Hofmann, Anu Asnaani, I. Vonk, Alice T. Sawyer, A. Fang. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2012

2,962 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) refers to a popular therapeutic approach that has been applied to a variety of problems. The goal of this review was to provide a comprehensive survey of meta-analyses examining the efficacy of CBT. We identified 269 meta-analytic studies and reviewed of those a representative sample of 106 meta-analyses examining CBT for the following problems: substance use disorder, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, depression and dysthymia, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, insomnia, personality disorders, anger and aggression, criminal behaviors, general stress, distress due to general medical conditions, chronic pain and fatigue, distress related to pregnancy complications and female hormonal conditions. Additional meta-analytic reviews examined the efficacy of CBT for various problems in children and elderly adults. The strongest support exists for CBT of anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, bulimia, anger control problems, and general stress. Eleven studies compared response rates between CBT and other treatments or control conditions. CBT showed higher response rates than the comparison conditions in seven of these reviews and only one review reported that CBT had lower response rates than comparison treatments. In general, the evidence-base of CBT is very strong. However, additional research is needed to examine the efficacy of CBT for randomized-controlled studies. Moreover, except for children and elderly populations, no meta-analytic studies of CBT have been reported on specific subgroups, such as ethnic minorities and low income samples.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/17c0a3ec0f066a90b84fa336daf8c55391b5254a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The Processes of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-Analyses (2018, methodology): “The first application of these ideas to psychotherapy are credited to Beck (1963) and Ellis (1970), in order to explain emotional and behavioral disturbance involved in psychiatric disorders (Hofmann et al. 2012).”
Side effects in Internet-based interventions for Social Anxiety Disorder (2014, background): “A recent review of 291 meta-analyses on face-to-face CBT reported response rates of 46–77% for anxiety disorders implying that non-response and deterioration varied between 23 and 54% (Hofmann et al., 2012).”
A Comparative Study on the Efficacy of a Positive Psychology Intervention and a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Clinical Depression (2017, background): “treatments, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), problem-solving therapy, behavioral therapy, and interpersonal therapy (Barth et al. 2013; Cuijpers et al. 2011a; Hofmann et al. 2012; Hollon and Ponniah 2010).”
Advances in cognitive theory and therapy: the generic cognitive model. (2014, background): “Despite evidence that cognitive therapy is an efficacious and effective treatment for a number of disorders (Butler et al. 2006; Hofmann et al. 2012, 2013; Hofmann & Smits 2008), dissemination efforts have lagged behind.”
Mental Health Smartphone Apps: Review and Evidence-Based Recommendations for Future Developments (2016, positive): “The efficacy of CBT has been supported by a comprehensive review of 106 meta-analyses across different clinical groups [26].”
Using Psychological Artificial Intelligence (Tess) to Relieve Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety: Randomized Controlled Trial (2018, background): “Tess delivers mental health interventions that have repeatedly been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, such as CBT [23], which maintains a strong evidence base [24].”
Pulling back the curtain on heritability studies: biosocial criminology in the postgenomic era (2014, background): “Importantly, given our concern with deviant behavior, hundreds of studies have shown that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can effectively change the (disturbed) thought processes and behaviors of adults with various types of psychopathology (Hofmann et al., 2012).”