Cognitive Behaviour Therapy has been proven to affect the brain physically... in 9 weeks!

26 people were helped with their Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) over 9 weeks using CBT, proof seen by the reduction in swelling and activity of each participants stress area of their brain.

A group of researchers from Linköping University and other Swedish universities has studied how internet-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ICBT) affects brain volume and activity.

The amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula and hippocampus, have central roles in the acquisition and expression of fear in the brain.

Exaggerated neural response in these regions has commonly been reported in anxiety disorders.

"The greater the improvement we saw in the patients, the smaller the size of their amygdalae. The study also suggests that the reduction in volume drives the reduction in brain activity," 

says doctoral student Kristoffer NT Månsson,

The study comprised of 52 participants of which 26 individuals were treated over the internet for nine weeks with CBT, making it a relatively small study. But participants were monitored in reduction of stress felt by an independent psychiatrist using scaling such as the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale as well as MRI scans and Neuroimaging to detect volume and activity levels of the amygdala.

In conclusion, they demonstrated compelling evidence that applying CBT for a common anxiety disorder changed the physical structure and neurofunctional response of the amygdala.

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Amazing how our thoughts can actually change the shape of our brain.

The idea that a part of the brain literally swells in volume when its being used too much is evidence of how adaptive our brains are.

So how and why do we damage ourselves by inflicting problems like depression and SAD onto ourselves? Our perception of the environment and reality are skewed and distorted in some way. We have trains of irrational thoughts that lead to many distorted views and prevent us from seeing the bigger picture which in turn can cause unwanted feelings and behaviour.

A combination of bad experiences and learned childhood survival techniques affect our perception of the environment and events as adults. 

If you are interested in reading more about distorted thoughts, go to this blog;

DistortedThoughts... How many do you have?

If you would like help with General Anxiety Disorder (SAD) or any other worries contact Sam at Therapy for Life

Source: Translational Psychiatry

The improvement in the quality of life in the older generation through Brain Training using Cognitive Skills.

A trial was carried out at King’s College London with nearly 7000 participants. It involved splitting the participants randomly into 3 groups that undertook different tasks.

1^st group: Reasoning and problem solving tasks.

2^nd group: Practicing cognitive skills like memory & attention training tasks.

3^rd group: Looking for information on the internet tasks.

The results were measured by participants answering questions from the

 “instrumental activities of daily living scale”.  

Devised by M.P. Lawton & E.M. Brody

This has questions such as:

When shopping how do you rate your capability?

1.     Take care of all shopping needs independently
2.     Shop independently for small purchases
3.     Need to be accompanied on any shopping trip.
4.     Completely unable to shop.

Each participant rated themselves on everyday tasks in the trial.

A team led by Clive Ballard at the University noticed after just 6 months of 5 sessions per week, the Cognitive Skills group showed improvement over the other two groups. These improvements really started to become apparent after only 3 months.

The benefits involved improved participant's short-term memory, judgements of grammatical accuracy and the ability to learn new words.

Because of the large number of people involved, this was a gold standard piece of research. Not only that, because of the sizable group of participants it had a reasonable chance of truly detecting any effects of the treatment if it was really there.

This proved that its possible that Cognitive training exercises can bring benefits to people amongst the older population with their everyday tasks and activities inducing an improved quality of life and independence.

Source: JAMDA

If you or someone you know is in need of some counselling in the Southend-on-Sea area, don’t hesitate to contact me by clicking here... Take care, Sam