Cognitive therapy with people with intellectual disabilities: a selective review and critique

The literature on cognitive therapy with people with intellectual disabilities was selectively reviewed, including application to problems such as anger management, depression and offending. The literature on anger management showed the most promise. The literature on depression was weak. Research on offenders was promising, but no controlled trials were found. Much of the literature incorrectly identified behavioral interventions as cognitive interventions. Many interventions, such as anger management, were in fact packages that included many behavioral interventions, such as relaxation and social skills training, alongside cognitive methods, such as cognitive restructuring. Hence, evaluations of anger management packages can not tell us anything about the effectiveness of cognitive therapy, since cognitive therapy is confounded with behavior therapy. Future directions for research include well controlled experimental trials to evaluate the effectiveness of these packages and the contribution of cognitive therapy to treatment outcome.