CBT is effective in treating people whose problems mostly stem from an inaccurate view of themselves or the world around them, because CBT is training people to take a step back and reassess what they're seeing. If you're suffering from some forms of OCD for example it can be incredibly effective, it helps to reframe things.
It is not effective, and I would argue actively worsens, situations where you're feeling bad about your accurate view of things, such as when you're depressed because you're unable to ever get any of the things you need to do done despite knowing they need to be done. CBT is unable to help in that situation because most people can't simply go "oh, well its ok, its a mental health condition" - employer, while sometimes supportive, aren't going to continue employing someone who doesn't do the work they're being paid for, and reframing that would eventually result in losing their job.
> Using a random effects model, we found that CBTs had medium-to-large effects from pre- to posttreatment (self-reported ADHD symptoms: g = 1.00; 95% confidence interval [CI: 0.84, 1.16]; self-reported functioning g = .73; 95% CI [0.46, 1.00]) and small-to-medium effects versus control (g = .65; 95% CI [0.44, 0.86] for symptoms, .51; 95% CI [0.23, 0.79] for functioning). Effect sizes were heterogeneous for most outcome measures. Studies with active control groups showed smaller effect sizes. Neither participant medication status nor treatment format moderated pre-to-post treatment effects, and longer treatments were not associated with better outcomes. Conclusions: Current CBTs for adult ADHD show comparable effect sizes to behavioral treatments for children with ADHD, which are considered well-established treatments. Future treatment development could focus on identifying empirically supported principles of treatment-related change for adults with ADHD. We encourage researchers to report future findings in a way that is amenable to meta-analytic review.
Yeah, it's better at making people feel better. Not great but certainly OK at improving behaviour.
As I said, the evidence seems to suggest medication is extremely effective which is I guess is why people are quoting the first thing I wrote and acting like they disagree with me (they get mad for suggesting that CBT works a bit because they feel judged for using the arguably superior treatment?).
I want to share my counter example -- no amount of therapy could help me not almost loose it every time I drove my daughter in heavy traffic or deal with her just being a toddler.
But after 2 weeks being on concerta made lasting changes even months off the drug.
It was the best type o therapy -- you just do the thing that triggers you minus the bad part and learn it's not so bad and you can do it, it has profound implications.
No, it doesn't. It _barely_ works and mostly consists of teaching people some coping mechanisms. Medication works _much_ better, especially when using in addition to the CBT.
CBT works pretty well for adhd, studies are clear on this.
But medication seems even better, as does a combination of therapy and medication.
ADHD isn't unusual as far as the effectiveness of therapy, it's unusual in how well the medication is proven to work.