In a nationally representative sample of office-based psychiatrists, the percentage of patient visits involving at least 30 minutes of psychotherapy dropped from 44% in 1996-1997 to 29% in 2004-2005.

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is widely acknowledged to be the most well-researched, and possibly the most effective therapy option for a wide variety of disorders. The problem is that it is not widely available, particularly in the treatment of patients with substance abuse disorders.

Here’s an outrageous question for you: Does psychotherapy work? Of course it does, you say, particularly cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). CBT has become so mainstream that Forbes magazine devoted its April 2007 cover article to it.

Over 30 years of practicing and teaching psychotherapy with a range of patients, Dr. Arnold Robbins has developed an integrated approach that can be individualized and is useful for his patients.

How do you combine CBT and psychopharm? What techniques are helpful for reducing hallucinations? Do you use CBT specifically to improve adherence to medications? These questions and more are addressed.

The results of the cognitive therapy component of the NIMH-funded STAR-D trial were finally released. Recall that in STAR-D, about 4,000 depressed patients were initially enrolled and were all given Celexa (citalopram) at an average dose of about 40 mg/day (see TCPR January 2007 for a rundown of STAR-D findings).

Motivational interviewing (MI) has taken the world of addiction therapy by storm. The essence of MI is that the therapist maintains an empathic, supportive stance with patients while gently prodding them to focus on discrepancies between how they would like their life to be and how it actually is.