There are a few options when it comes to psychotherapy for behavior disorders. This article reviews 3 psychotherapy options including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Maudsley Model of Family Therapy. Learn what to look for when choosing psychotherapy for behavior disorders.

Choosing a Psychotherapy to Treat a Behavior Disorder

As with many other mental health issues, a combination of psychotherapy and medication, psychotherapy alone, or medication alone, are often used in the treatment of behavior disorders. When psychotherapy is employed, the specific method chosen may be a general method used for a wide variety of disorders, a method that has been found to work particularly well with the specific behavior disorder in question, or in some cases, a therapeutic psychotherapy approach developed specifically for treatment of the particular behavior disorder.

Let's look at a few different types of psychotherapy and the disorders they are used to treat.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, abbreviated CBT, is widely used for behavior disorders and other mental health issues, including, for example, mood disorders. It aims to assist people suffering from mental health issues to grasp the ways in which feeling, thinking, and action relate to each other, providing people with the tools to control his or her thoughts and take responsibility for them (and by extension, his or her feelings).

CBT is one of the therapies, for example, used in treating the eating disorders Anorexia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder (BED), and has been found to be the most effective treatment for Bulimia Nervosa, although if the patient has a coexisting disorder—depression, for example—medication such as antidepressants may also be used, and recently the Maudsley Model has been proven to be the most effective approach for Anorexia Nervosa in young patients (see below).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may be used to treat patients with substance abuse and addiction issues, such as alcoholism and addiction to methamphetamines or heroin. With alcoholism, it may be combined with aversion therapy. If the substance abuse or addiction is life-threatening, medical attention is the first intervention to help with detoxification and withdrawal.

CBT is also used for Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD),

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a modification of CBT that was designed specifically to treat patients who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (called Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder in the ICD-10). Dr. Marsha Linehan, who developed the therapy, admitted for the first time in June, 2011, that she herself had suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder, a disorder that had widely been considered untreatable.

Maudsley Model of Family Therapy

Used to treat young patients with Anorexia Nervosa, the Maudsley Model has a high recovery rate and is currently the most effective treatment for this disorder with younger patients. It begins with the transfer back to the parents of responsibility for the young patient's eating and weight. Responsibility is transferred back to the child when it is safe to do so. Done with strict adherence, research has found 90 percent of patients symptom-free five years on.

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Related Article: Intermittent Explosive Disorder - IED >>