Helping people improve their lives with behavior therapy

If the aim of behavior therapy is to help individuals with clinical problems improve their lives, then the field has been, and will continue to be, an outstanding success. However, the same problems that were present for therapy researchers in the beginning days of the field remain, namely, how to improve the results of treatment, and what mechanisms underlie the effectiveness of treatment. Some current approaches to these problems are outlined largely in reference to the eating disorders. The advent of managed care will, in my opinion, be advantageous for the further development of behavior therapy, which is likely to remain a strong field, ultimately linking therapeutic behavior change with neurochemical changes in the central nervous system.