National Institute for Health and Care Research

Improving Cognitive Treatments for Delusions

Freeman (2011) outlines a new direction for cognitive treatments of delusions based on targeting specific causal mechanisms underlying psychotic beliefs.

The paper argues that existing cognitive-behavioural treatments for delusions have only modest effects because they have not fully incorporated advances in understanding the causes of psychotic experiences. Freeman advocates an interventionist-causal approach, in which specific maintaining factors—such as worry, insomnia, reasoning biases, negative self-beliefs, and avoidance behaviours—are individually targeted and experimentally tested. Early studies reviewed in the paper suggest that reducing these causal factors can lead to meaningful reductions in delusional distress and conviction. Overall, the article highlights the potential for more effective and theoretically driven interventions by directly targeting the psychological mechanisms that maintain delusions.

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