Metacognitive therapy

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is a psychotherapy focused on modifying metacognitive beliefs that perpetuate states of worry, rumination and attention fixation.[1] It was created by Adrian Wells[2] based on an information processing model by Wells and Gerald Matthews.[3] It is supported by scientific evidence from a large number of studies.[4][5]

The goals of MCT are first to discover what patients believe about their own thoughts and about how their mind works (called metacognitive beliefs), then to show the patient how these beliefs lead to unhelpful responses to thoughts that serve to unintentionally prolong or worsen symptoms, and finally to provide alternative ways of responding to thoughts in order to allow a reduction of symptoms. In clinical practice, MCT is most commonly used for treating anxiety disorders such as social anxiety disorder, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), health anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as depression – though the model was designed to be transdiagnostic (meaning it focuses on common psychological factors thought to maintain all psychological disorders).

  1. ^ Mulder, Roger; Murray, Greg; Rucklidge, Julia (December 2017). "Common versus specific factors in psychotherapy: opening the black box". The Lancet. Psychiatry. 4 (12): 953–962. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(17)30100-1. PMID 28689019.
  2. ^ Wells, Adrian (2011). Metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 9781593859947. OCLC 226358223.
  3. ^ Wells, Adrian; Matthews, Gerald (November 1996). "Modelling cognition in emotional disorder: the S-REF model". Behaviour Research and Therapy. 34 (11–12): 881–8. doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(96)00050-2. PMID 8990539.
  4. ^ Wells, Adrian (12 December 2019). "Breaking the cybernetic code: understanding and treating the human metacognitive control system to enhance mental health". Frontiers in Psychology. 10: 2621. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02621. PMC 6920120. PMID 31920769.
  5. ^ Normann, Nicoline; van Emmerik, Arnold A. P.; Morina, Nexhmedin (May 2014). "The efficacy of metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression: a meta-analytic review". Depression and Anxiety. 31 (5): 402–11. doi:10.1002/da.22273. PMID 24756930. S2CID 205736364.