Combined Cognitive Behavioral and Pharmacologic Treatment Strategies: Current Status and Future Directions

Abstract

(from the chapter) This chapter provides a review of the current status of traditional combined treatment strategies: co-application of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy, most typically, with antidepressant or benzodiazepine medications. The success of these strategies, as judged from the perspective of randomized clinical trials and naturalistic case series, will be reviewed and followed by an account of some of the issues and complexities underlying the limited treatment efficacy of this approach. Guidance is provided to clinicians on some of the contextual factors that may hinder CBT efficacy in the context of co-occurring medication treatment. Furthermore, we discuss the theory and potential for new combination treatment strategies that avoid some of the issues associated with current approaches and which rely much more on maximizing the core therapeutic learning offered by exposure-based CBT approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (chapter)