Cognitive behavioral therapy

A family of psychological treatments using explicit formulations and structured cognitive and behavioral procedures. Treatment tests and modifies relevant learning, interpretations and behavior; its content depends on the problem and the evidence rather than on one universal technique.

Experimental or intervention procedures intended to change biased information processing. Demonstrating changed responses on the training task does not automatically demonstrate durable transfer or effective clinical treatment.

Psychological treatment using an individual formulation and collaborative examination of difficulties associated with psychotic experiences. Symptom-specific protocols, general support and usual care provide different comparisons for assessing incremental benefit.

A blended digital and face-to-face reasoning intervention for paranoia. Its 2021 trial did not establish a significant benefit on the prespecified total paranoia score at 24 weeks, despite favourable secondary results. This illustrates why endpoint, timing and process engagement matter when evaluating innovation.^[ref]

A personalised intervention for persistent persecutory delusions, combining modules selected to address relevant maintaining processes. Its active control trial compared it with same-therapist befriending alongside usual care. The continuous conviction result and categorical recovery comparison require separate interpretation.^[ref]

A structured youth programme using discussion, rehearsal and examination of automatic interpretations to support better decisions in provocative situations. Randomised school-based evaluations in Chicago tested outcomes including arrests and school engagement; participation-effect estimates and effects of a randomised offer should be distinguished.^[ref]

Examining and revising interpretations or assumptions that influence emotion and action, typically with explicit alternatives and tests rather than unsupported reassurance. Its contribution to a treatment package requires component-level evidence.

Structured coping-skills training with practice and application to appropriate challenges. The intervention is distinct from the hypothesis that naturally occurring adversity causes later protection; it does not mean deliberately imposing harmful experiences.

Delivery of structured CBT content through an internet platform, potentially with clinician guidance, parent modules and live contact. Efficacy is a property of the specified programme, population and support arrangement, rather than the delivery medium alone.^[ref]

An approach addressing processes shared across diagnostic categories. It can still use an individual clinical formulation and disorder-relevant behavioural experiments; transdiagnostic delivery need not mean identical exercises for every patient.

A protocol organised around mechanisms proposed to maintain a particular disorder. Its comparative value requires an adequate alternative with comparable delivery, competence and assessment; superiority to waiting list alone does not establish superiority to a flexible generic programme.

Use of a recording to compare a concrete prediction about observable behavior with recorded evidence. Preparation matters: selective flaw-searching can reproduce the original bias rather than provide a fair test of the prediction.

Planned contact with appropriate feared cues or situations to support new learning and reduce maladaptive avoidance. Its rationale requires informed, collaborative tasks and attention to the behaviors that could block learning; exposure does not mean deliberately creating genuine danger.

A strategy intended to strengthen learning that competes with a threat association and improve its later retrieval. Expectancy testing and varied contexts are examples. A coherent learning rationale does not itself demonstrate the optimal clinical implementation for every developmental group.^[ref]

A concentrated intervention combining approach practice and learning about a phobic stimulus. A youth randomised trial compared this package with education-support and waiting list. Package efficacy is distinct from proof that one session is the optimal dose for all presentations.^[ref]

Specifying a feared prediction, arranging an informative and appropriately safe approach task, and comparing the observed outcome with the prediction. The review should include uncertainty and alternative explanations rather than compel a reassuring conclusion. Necessary protections and accessibility adjustments are retained.

Exposure to appropriate obsession-related triggers while refraining from compulsions and functionally equivalent reassurance or neutralization. The target is learning to respond differently to the cue and uncertainty, rather than first eliminating every intrusive thought.

A discrepancy between a predicted outcome and the outcome experienced. During exposure, explicit predictions can make such discrepancies informative; a safety behavior may prevent revision if the person attributes the benign outcome to that behavior.

Exposure to appropriate bodily sensations relevant to a feared prediction. Assessment and supervision determine suitable exercises; the inference concerns a specific tested prediction, not the claim that all bodily symptoms are harmless.

A planned test of a specific prediction relevant to a psychological difficulty. The design specifies what would be expected under competing interpretations and reviews the observed outcome, including alternative explanations; it is not simply repeating a feared activity without a learning question.

Treatment examining and modifying interpretations, assumptions and predictions that contribute to distress and impairment. Behavioral experiments can generate new evidence rather than relying only on verbal argument or reassurance.