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CBT for Psychosis: A Symptom-Based Approach Edited by Roger Hagen, Douglas Turkington, Torkil Berge & Rolf W. Gråwe, Routledge, 2010, £19.99, pb, 296 pp. ISBN: 9780415549479

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Lucia R. Valmaggia*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK, email: l.valmaggia@iop.kcl.ac.uk
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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011

The book is divided into four parts, starting off with a section on cognitive models of auditory hallucinations and delusions and on the assessment of psychosis. The initial chapters summarise the cognitive models of auditory hallucinations and delusions and discuss how these models can inform clinical practice. The next chapter describes in detail the areas of assessment for cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) in psychosis and uses case examples to illustrate how the assessment instruments discussed can be applied in daily practice.

The next part provides detailed descriptions of typical treatment components involved in CBT for psychosis, including the therapeutic alliance, the use of normalising and relapse prevention. It also covers more specific skills and techniques to perform CBT in early intervention, with command hallucinations and with people experiencing residual negative symptoms. The book also addresses the issues associated with implementing CBT for psychosis when resources are limited and describes a number of possible solutions such as the use of a structured manual or delivering CBT in a group format.

Part three starts with two chapters on how to integrate CBT in the treatment of people with psychosis and substance misuse, and in people experiencing a first episode of psychosis who have experienced a traumatic life event. These are followed by an interesting chapter on how to integrate the family in the treatment of psychosis and ends with an outline of how CBT can be applied to improve work outcome in people with severe mental health problems.

The final section of the book describes the implementation of CBT in the treatment of bipolar disorders. This section is more theoretical and, regrettably, does not use clinical vignettes like the previous chapters.

Overall, the book presents material on CBT for psychosis in an easy and understandable way and has practical illustrations of the theory. It is comprehensive, accessible and I would recommend it to clinicians working with people with psychosis.

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