Strategies that address negative attention bias strengthen the cognitive therapy model

The focus of cognitive therapy on content of problematic cognitive functioning seemed to lead naturally to the practice of trying to change or modify that content. This practice had to work as an experimental project, for it did not necessarily follow that changing content of negative thoughts would necessarily change accompanying emotions and behaviours. Some have argued, for example, that the negative thoughts are just `epiphenomena' ± merely coincidental factors with no causal role. There is now, however, evidence of such a causal effect: for example, the role of `catastrophic misinterpretations' in panic symptoms (Clark, 1996).