Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most substantially researched form of psychotherapy, with demonstrated effectiveness in a wide variety of conditions including depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders and substance use disorders.
King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) in Jeddah in collaboration with Oxford University, the prestigious Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, and King Abdulaziz Medical City for the National Guard conducted for the first time in the Kingdom a diploma in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that started in February.
The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy diploma program in Jeddah is a way to disseminate evidence-based psychotherapy. “This kind of therapy is very suitable for many clients, including those who refuse pharmacological treatments,” said Dr. Ahmad Alsaleh, assistant professor of psychiatry at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Jeddah.
“Despite growing evidence of the effectiveness of CBT, there is unfortunately a shortage of trained CBT therapists all over the world and especially in our region,” he said, pointing out that one of the main reasons behind this is the lack of accredited training programs.
“The main goal of this diploma program is to provide our community with skilled and competent therapists who are able to apply CBT for treating several mental health disorders,” said Dr. Alsaleh.
Dr. Dakhil A. Alsaeidi, consultant psychiatrist and program director of the CBT diploma program at KFSHRC, said that one of the main reasons was to disseminate information about this kind of therapy to psychologists and psychiatrists and to spread information about the importance and availability of such resource in treating out patients.
“We need to open a channel for our clients that there is hope beside medication, which is based on strong evidence and research. Over here, psychological treatment is not easily accessible, because of non availability of trained CBT therapists. So with this program we hope to be able to provide trained CBT therapists and give more choice to our patients,” said Dr. Alsaeidi.
In psychiatry, there are two types of treatments: Pharmacological treatments and physiological treatments. Unfortunately, the main focus in Saudi Arabia and the region is on medication. “Medication is a very important aspect of the treatment; it’s a corner stone in some of the physiological illnesses. However, it is not a good reason to neglect the other psychological therapies,” explained Dr. Alsaeidi.
He further explained that there are different psychological therapies, starting from counseling, family therapy, psychodynamic therapy, interpersonal therapy, supportive therapy and psychoanalysis.
“Psychodynamic therapy is available here, but few people are practicing it. CBT is a strong evidence therapy that supports long-term psychodynamic therapy. It can be used for depression and various anxiety disorders as well as other disorders,” added Dr. Alsaeidi.
CBT is a structural therapy. It can teach people and doctors remarkably similar things at the end of the therapy. There are many reasons for CBT’s popularity; one of them is that it is a short-term therapy. On average, patients need eight to 20 sessions at one session per week.
Dr. Alsaeidi also explained the common psychological problems of the region and many developing countries, which are depression, anxiety disorders, compulsive disorders, social anxiety disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“There are different psychotherapies, but with time, CBT shows that it is more effective than others. It makes sense to people to understand the problems. Awareness is very helpful in common psychological problems,” explained Dr. Alsaeidi.
He further said that there could be many reasons for psychological problems. People mainly think there is one reason, but behind any psychological problem there could be many reasons that cook together to create a problem, such as lifestyle, relationship difficulties, environmental stress, and conflicts at home or work, which can cause depression.
He also said it is essential to know how psychological problems or depression affect our life. People should appreciate the fact that depression impacts our daily life in many ways, as it affects our relationship and work productivity, and many difficulties arise because of depression.
“Depression is one of the common problems that need to be treated. I guess education on depression being a disorder or problem is quite important, because if one does not appreciate the fact that he or she is depressed, it’s going to be very difficult to realize that he or she needs help. One of the common symptoms of depression is lack of motivation. People suffering from depression are not motivated to do anything, they don’t show any interest in life, and most of the time they are hopeless. All these effects prevent them from seeking medical advice,” said Dr. Alsaeidi.
Dr. Alsaeidi further explained that it is necessary to appreciate and accept that depression or any psychological illness can be the main cause for other health problems, so people with depression or anxiety should seek psychological advice.
The statistics on psychological problems in the Kingdom are not different from other regions and countries of the world. Social anxiety is a more significant problem in Saudi Arabia than in other countries in the region. One of the problems is that people are not well aware and educated about psychological problems, and there is a need of awareness on such issues.
“We do not only need to spread awareness of mental health illnesses in the community, but also need to educate doctors from the different specialties about mental illnesses, so they can detect psychological problems in their patients and refer them to see a mental health professional at an early stage,” said Dr. Alsaleh.
The CBT program has two components: A didactic part, which consists of 12 modules, and a practice under supervision. “We think practice under supervision is very important to develop good skills in CBT. We hope that by the end of the CBT program, we will have competent and skilled CBT therapists,” said Alsaleh.
Dr. Alsaeidi advised anyone with problems like depression, anxiety or any other illness to go to the experts, because they are the only people who can help and find out the problem.
“Evidence has shown that psychological and pharmacological treatments are very effective in treating mental health problems, but we need to increase the awareness of the patients to seek help as early as possible, as early intervention has a huge positive impact on the outcome of the treatment,” said Dr. Alsaleh.
