PROMOTING COGNITIVETHERAPY IN BRITISH PSYCHIATRY

Abstract

Psychiatrists, who are still performing the executive roles in many areas of mental health, make up 6.5% (N=184) of the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) membership. Considering that there are currently 4577 practising psychiatrists in the U.K. (Consultants, Senior Registrars, Specialist Registrars, Associate Specialists and Staff grades), the above figure is put into perspective. The equivalent figure for clinical psychologists is 40.9% (N=1162) of BABCP membership, taken from a national total of 3734 qualified professionals. Viewed in this context, the present review examines the profile of cognitive therapy (CT) in British psychiatry during the last three decades. As a measure of this, it was decided to survey the number of articles on cognitive therapy appearing in two key psychiatric journals widely circulated in Britain: The British Journal of Psychiatry and Current Opinion in Psychiatry.