Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Autism Ranking:

Risks and Safety

Hazards

There are no known adverse effects of cognitive behavioural therapy for autistic people.

Contraindications

There are no known contraindications (something which makes a particular treatment or procedure potentially inadvisable) for CBT for autistic people.  However, some authors have suggested that CBT may be less effective in autistic people.  For example, Scattone and Mong (2013) suggested 

“There are several potential barriers limiting the effectiveness of CBT for this population, incluautistic ding difficulty regulating emotions, communication deficits (e.g., comprehension, literal interpretation), motivation, cognitive inflexibility, concrete thinking, executive function deficits, therapeutic generalization across settings, and ToM deficits” 

Updated

16 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Mar 2017

Next Review

01 Jul 2023