http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NHSCBT/#detail
E-Petitions
Sign a petition
Submitted by S. Forrest of NHS
Deadline to sign up by: 11 April 2009
Signatures: 249
We the undersigned petition the Prime
Minister to limit the promotion & delivery
of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy [CBT]
within the NHS according to available
evidence.
Following economist Lord Layards
promotion of CBT on economic grounds,
the NHS has seen a boom in the funding
made available for the exclusive
employment and training of CBT therapists
in the NHS.
However, equal funding has NOT been
made available for a diverse range of
psychotherapies.
CBT continues to be aggressively promoted
on the grounds of evidence of its alleged
effectiveness in treating some forms of
mental distress, thereby severely and
unfairly biasing public perception of CBT as
a cure-all when this is patently untrue.
Published evidence exists that shows CBT
to have no long-term benefit in treating
common difficulties such as anxiety or
psychosis.
Further evidence also shows CBT to
worsen symptoms in people who suffer
from, for example, Myalgic Encephalo-
myelitis (ME)/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
(CFS).
As CBT is promoted on the grounds of
evidence of its effectiveness with some
patients, this petition calls for the
cessation of the use and promotion of CBT
in the NHS where there is either no
evidence of its effectiveness or where
evidence exists to show that CBT is
ineffective or deleterious to a patients
wellbeing or symptoms.
S. Forrest of NHS
““
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3 Comments
May 27, 2008 at 9:24 pm
What is needed in ‘Cognitive Emotional Therapy’ – sorting the emotional roots of mental/emotional distress. This works, where CBT scrapes the surface, and risks re-traumatisation every time.
Bob Johnson
November 14, 2008 at 8:15 am
CBT obviously isn’t a cure-all, and I’ve never seen anyone claim that it is. I have a lay interest in this. I’ve never sought or needed treatment, but I first became aware of CBT via the Layard report and decided to find out more.
I’ve found the basic principles very helpful in managing anger and stress and I know that others to whom I’ve mentioned CBT have as well.
Seems to me that CBT could have as much or more value in preventing the onset of serious mental health problems than it does in dealing with those problems once they occur. Once someone is clinically depressed, for example, they will find it difficult to motivate themselves to self-apply CBT – and self-application is what it’s all about.
I can see that the ‘agressive’ promotion of CBT is a bad thing and I’m well aware of the attacks by those who practice other forms of therapy on the CBT industry. But I do feel that prevention is better than cure.
A problem that afflicts the NHS is that those who are in the cure business (heart surgeons, psychiatrists etc.) need a steady supply of very sick people in order to earn their pay cheques and gain professional credibility. I realise that this isn’t an original thought.
The police are in a similar position. Crime prevention is a very low status activity.
November 14, 2008 at 10:10 am
With due respect I am discussing victims of very severe trauma and abuse – who would fit into the Complex PTSD “lable”. People who are at avery high risk of suicide, severe dissociation and have extremely low qaulity of lives. You say you have never need or sought CBT. I’m afraid its “lay” interest where much of the problem rests. CBT is an extremely dangerous form of treatment for some people and exacerbates NOT prevents serious mental illness. Any therpay which makes a person feel invalidated and seeks behavioural modification rather the root of the problem damages a patient. Many report the CBY expedrinece to be highly invalidating. I also believe in prevention – And that involves appropraite early intervention to prevent abuse, appropriate PTSD therapy and EMOTIONAL COGNITIVE THERAPY expounded by the likes of Dr Bob Johnson. I think abuse survivors have had enough of lay people with no direct experience (or appropraite academic grounding) giving their advice on how we experinec therapy.