Changes in the world of therapy

[S O F I]

This article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/health/policy/06doctors.html?ref=health

talks about how psychiatrists are simply shutting people up and giving them medication as opposed to try and talk to them about their problems.

This article here talks about cognitive-bias modification therapy: Psychiatry: Therapist-free therapy | The Economist

CBM is based on the idea that many psychological problems are caused by automatic, unconscious biases in thinking. People suffering from anxiety, for instance, may have what is known as an attentional bias towards threats: they are drawn irresistibly to things they perceive to be dangerous. Similar biases may affect memory and the interpretation of events. For example, if an acquaintance walks past without saying hello, it might mean either that he has ignored you or that he has not seen you. The anxious, according to the theory behind CBM, have a bias towards assuming the former and reacting accordingly.

The goal of CBM is to alter such biases, and doing so has proved surprisingly easy. A common way of debiasing attention is to show someone two words or pictures—one neutral and the other threatening—on a computer screen. In the case of social anxiety these might be a neutral face and a disgusted face. Presented with this choice, an anxious person instinctively focuses on the disgusted visage. The program, however, prods him to complete tasks involving the neutral picture, such as identifying letters that appear in its place on the screen. Repeating the procedure around a thousand times, over a total of two hours, changes the user’s tendency to focus on the anxious face. That change is then carried into the wider world.

Your thoughts, people? I'm for sure against just giving people drugs to solve their problems. This new approach, CBM, seems interesting.

 

[Pittsey]

Is this the same as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)


The problem in the UK at least, is that drugs are free. CBT is only available privately and people would have to pay. People with serious psychiatric disorders don't usually have jobs.

 

[S O F I]

Is this the same as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)


The problem in the UK at least, is that drugs are free. CBT is only available privately and people would have to pay. People with serious psychiatric disorders don't usually have jobs.

From what I read briefly, no it's not, because that CBT still involves talking problems out. CBM is more computer-based.