THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COGNITIVELY-BASED APPROACHES IN TREATING STRESS-RELATED SYMPTOMS

This article offers evidence for the effectiveness of cognitively-based approaches to the treatment of four categories of stress-related symptoms: psychophysiologic disorders, depression, anxiety, and work strain. There is considerable evidence from both meta-analytic reviews and independent studies for the effectiveness of these approaches for these symptom categories. Their effectiveness appears similar to the effectiveness of psychotherapy in general. Despite the lack of superior results to other psychotherapies, these approaches are likely to compete well in a managed care environment because they tend to be more structured, are shorter in duration, and their results seem to hold up well over time.