ArticleBehaviour research and therapy2023
Identifying active ingredients in cognitive-behavioral therapies: What if we didn't?
Article in Behaviour research and therapy, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Next-Generation Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Depression: Integrating Digital Tools, Teletherapy, and Personalization for Enhanced Mental Health Outcomes.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Pooled it
- Change in negative mental filter is associated with depression reduction in metacognitive training for depression in older adults (MCT-Silver).Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Cognitive Therapy-as-Usual versus Cognitive Therapy plus the Memory Support Intervention for adults with depression: 12-month outcomes and opportunities for improved efficacy in a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Behaviour research and therapy · 2023Trial
- Psychotherapy for PTSD - a scoping review of how change during treatment has been studied.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Leveraging machine learning to personalize depression treatment: A pre-registered study of 828 adults randomized to a digital single-session intervention or waitlist.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Disorder-specific and transdiagnostic vulnerability to posttraumatic stress symptoms: A machine learning approach.Journal of traumatic stress · 2026Article
- Between- and within-person relations between treatment modules and symptom improvements across six randomized controlled trials.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2025Article
- Trajectories of Rumination and Negative Cognitive Style from Late Childhood Through Adolescence: Modeling Normative Growth Patterns and Predicting Cognitive Vulnerabilities.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Article
- Aphasia Depression and Psychological Therapy (ADaPT): Perspectives of People with Post-Stroke Aphasia on Participating in a Modified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Beyond mediators: A critical review and methodological path forward for studying mechanisms in alcohol use treatment research.Alcohol, clinical & experimental research · 2024Review
- On the importance of identifying mechanisms and active ingredients of psychological treatments.Behaviour research and therapy · 2023Article
- Does the unified protocol really change personality more than other interventions? Probably little if at all: a commentary on a recently-published study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Identifying active ingredients of psychological interventions is a major goal of psychotherapy researchers that is often justified by the promise that it will lead to improved patient outcomes. Much of this "active ingredients" research is conducted within randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with patient populations, putting it in Phase T2 of the clinical-translational spectrum. I argue that RCTs in patient populations are very "messy laboratories" in which to conduct active ingredient work and that T0 and T1 research provide more controlled contexts. However, I call attention to the long road from identifying active ingredients of CBTs, whether in T0, T1, or T2 research, to improving outcomes. Dissemination and implementation research (T3 and T4 approaches) may be conceptually closer to improving outcomes. Given how common and disabling mental health symptoms are, I argue that if researchers want to improve patient outcomes, these research programs must receive more attention including work on the uptake of psychological interventions as well as work on optimal ordering of existing interventions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.