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  • Respiratory

Overview of CBT and its Role in Breathlessness

For many years the integration of physical and mental health has been poor, however there is increasing body of evidence demonstrating that integrating mental and physical care for people with long-term conditions can improve both physical and mental health, as well as reducing healthcare utilisation.3

CBT is an evidence-based, patient-centred, individualised, structured psychological treatment, which aims to understand patients’ current difficulties.1,2 It explores the links between a patient’s situation, physical symptoms, thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, and uses techniques directed at tackling current challenges to teach the patient skills to help identify unhelpful thinking or behaviour which might be causing vicious cycles of anxiety and/or depression. Having a clearer understanding of the underlying challenges can then lead to the identification of strategies to help overcome these difficulties with the aim of improving the patient’s quality of life.3

In this presentation Dr Sarah Baxter explores what CBT is, and how this technique can be used to help improve breathlessness in respiratory patients.

References

1. National Institute of Clinical Excellence. Depression in adults with a chronic physical health problem: recognition and management [CG91]. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg91

2. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults: management [CG113]. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg113

3. Heslop-Marshall K & Burns G. The role of cognitive behavioural therapy in living well with COPD. Breathe. Jun 2019, 15(2) 95-97; DOI 10.1183/20734735.0119-2019

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  • Dr Sarah Baxter

    Principal Clinical Psychologist and Professional Lead

    Read biography