Cognitive Behavioral Therapy\u27s Effectiveness for Anxiety and Depression

Worldwide, over 300 million people are affected by depression and approximately 264 million are affected by anxiety disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a treatment commonly used for these disorders, but does it help? We conducted a meta-analysis to discern how effective CBT is for anxiety and depression. To do so, we collected 18 articles from PsycINFO; we found that most effect sizes were either medium or large, indicating that CBT is an effective treatment for anxiety and depression. Additionally, CBT works best under certain conditions: treating depression (d = 1.09), 10-15 year olds (d = 1.17), in person (d = 1.02), individually (d = 1.03), and in a therapy/outpatient setting (d = 1.05). These results suggest that CBT’s effectiveness varies due to many factors, but it is an effective method for treating anxiety and depression