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Does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Reduce Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia?

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Does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Reduce Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia?
Grace Muiruri
(NAME OF SCHOOL)

Does Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Reduce Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia? Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that can be almost as disturbing to onlookers as it is to the sufferer because it is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behaviors. The schizophrenic him- or herself may find it difficult to settle into any kind of regular patterns that might constitute a more or less ordinary life, or at least one that had some regularity and continuity to it. Adding to the schizophrenic's problem adjusting might be the reactions of others to ongoing delusions and hallucinations. Recent studies have suggested that cognitive behavioral therapy may provide at least one avenue of treatment for those delusions and hallucinations, one of the schizophrenic's most intractable problems. The delusions and hallucinations represent a significant impairment for the schizophrenic, and diminishes his or her ability to dependably comprehend reality and develop meaningful insights into his or her situation. There has been a significant amount of research into the question of whether or not cognitive behavioral therapy might play a role in ending, or making less frequent, or even diminishing the intense of, the schizophrenic's hallucinations and delusions. Shawyer et al. (2012) looked at the special problem of command hallucinations. Command hallucinations are auditory hallucinations that direct the schizophrenic to act, and are especially problematic because they are associated with particularly destructive, and self-destructive, behaviors. In this study, 44 participants were exposed to both a cognitive behavioral therapy, TORCH, and to a sometimes complementary therapy, Befriending, in which a

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