Every week, we receive various email alerts about new research studies in Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. We’re going to start posting links to these research studies here on CT Today. Some research studies may be of interest only to professionals, but we think some of them may interest the layperson as well. Like this one, which shows that Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) can actually help infertile women start ovulating again. When we post research studies, you’ll see them here as “Research Results,” followed by a sentence about what the study showed.
CBT can restore ovulation in infertile women describes a randomized, controlled trial in which 16 women who had not menstruated in six months were randomly assigned to one of two groups — half of them received CBT treatment for 20 weeks, and the other half were simply observed (no treatment was given to them). Amazingly, 80% of the women who received CBT treatment started ovulating again, compared to only 25% of the group under observation. The Emory University Professor who conducted the study, Professor Sarah L. Berga, M.D., attributes the results to CBT’s ability to reduce hormonal stressors, which had apparently been preventing ovulation. CBT may provide an alternative to costly medical procedures and medication for some infertile women. Results of this study were announced at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague, Czech Republic on Tuesday 20 June 2006.