Respond to your colleagues by recommending strategies to overcome the challenges your colleagues have identified. Support your recommendation with evidence-based literature and/or your own experiences with clients.
SECOND STUDENT TO REPLY
Tyler Weber
Week 5 discussion
Top of Form
Many people have heard of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), but they may not know what CBT is, or what CBT is meant to accomplish. According to American Psychological Association (2017), CBT is an extremely effective for of psychological treatment that can be used to treat depression, substance abuse, anxiety, eating disorders, and has been shown it can be as effective as other forms of therapy, and even as effective as psychiatric medications. CBT concentrates on the patients thinking and behaviors, and how the patterns of thought can influence behaviors and daily outcomes.
There are also different types of CBT. Two examples of CBT are individual and group. According to Neufeld et al., (2020) a randomized clinical trial was performed to evaluate the effect of individual and group CBT interventions for social anxiety. The study showed that individual and group interventions had higher reductions in depressive symptoms and social anxiety, and they were both equivalent at lowering comorbidity symptoms of patients with social anxiety disorder.
In another randomized controlled study, the efficacy of individual CBT for young adults and combined family/individual therapy for young adults for anorexia nervosa was evaluated. According to the study CBT for young adults and family therapy for young adults in an outpatient setting had increased weight, reduced eating disorder symptoms, and better overall psychopathology after 18 months of treatment (Nyman-Carlsson et al., 2020).
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be devastating for an individual to have. It can interfere with everyday life and cost a person their job, friendships, or even their spouse. CBT for OCD is the first-line psychological treatment. According to Pozza & Dettore (2017) a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing the efficacy of group and individual CBT for OCD, showed that group therapy can be as effective as individual therapy for the treatment of OCD.
There are challenges that could happen when a PMHNP is conducting a group CBT session. One challenge is that not all group members are onboard with changing their thought patterns. This can put a damper on the rest of the group members if they are vocal about their non-compliance. Another challenge that could happen is that the members of the group expect life-changing results immediately. According to InformedHealth (2013), the length of time varies between a few sessions to many months until the patient experiences positive results.
References
American Psychological Association (2017). What is cognitive behavioral therapy? American Psychological Association. Retrieved June 29, 2022, from https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral#:~:text=Cognitive%20behavioral%20therapy%20(CBT)%20is,disorders%2C%20and%20severe%20mental%20illness.
InformedHealth.org (2013). Cologne, Germany: Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG); 2006-. Cognitive behavioral therapy. 2013 Aug 7. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279297/
Neufeld, C. B., Palma, P. C., Caetano, K. A. S., Brust-Renck, P. G., Curtiss, J., & Hofmann, S. G. (2020). A randomized clinical trial of group and individual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy approaches for Social Anxiety Disorder. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 20(1), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2019.11.004
Nyman-Carlsson, E., Norring, C., Engström, I., Gustafsson, S. A., Lindberg, K., Paulson-Karlsson, G., & Nevonen, L. (2020). Individual cognitive behavioral therapy and combined family/individual therapy for young adults with Anorexia nervosa: A randomized controlled trial. Psychotherapy Research: Journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, 30(8), 1011–1025. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2019.1686190
Pozza, A., & Dèttore, D. (2017). Drop-out and efficacy of group versus individual cognitive behavioral therapy: What works best for obsessive-compulsive disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis of direct comparisons. Psychiatry Research, 258, 24–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.09.056
Peer Response
Name
Institution
Date
Peer Response
Hey Tyler, I am happy to hear from you
I agree with your post that cognitive-behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy that is used for the management of a range of disorders that range from depression, eating disorders, and substance and alcohol abuse to anxiety among others. Cognitive-behavioral therapy works by facilitating the restructuring of maladaptive thoughts and behaviors. It enables individuals to develop thoughts and behaviors that are desirable.
In your post, you have identified two challenges that a PMHNP is likely to face when conducting group cognitive behavioral therapy. One of the challenges that you have outlined is that the group members may not be on board with the changes in the thought patterns, which could hinder the achievement of the group’s goal. This challenge can be managed by having co-therapists. Having co-therapists will allow flexibility and easy monitoring. The use of co-therapists in group cognitive behavioral therapy has been associated with increased group cohesiveness, flexibility, and concise and empathetic communication (Bryde Christensen et al., 2022).
The second challenge relates to the effectiveness of the intervention within a short period. Just like any other psychotherapy, group cognitive-behavioral therapy may yield or not yield the expected outcomes within a short period. The group members should not expect life-changing events immediately. However, they should follow up with the PMHNP to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The PHMNP would need to explain to the group members that the time could vary among the different group members based on their distinct characteristics and their reasons for seeking therapy. Nursing literature asserts that in the case group cognitive behavioral therapy is not effective in promoting the achievement of the desired results, individuals should be recommended to individual cognitive-behavioral therapy which individual-centered (Guo et al., 2021).
References
Bryde Christensen, A., Riis, M. G., Wahrén, S., Reinholt, N., Skov, A. C., Poulsen, S., … & Arnfred, S. (2022). Patient Perspectives on Co-Therapists’ Behaviors in Group CBT. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 1-9.
Guo, T., Su, J., Hu, J., Aalberg, M., Zhu, Y., Teng, T., & Zhou, X. (2021). Individual vs. Group Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 674267.