Metacognitive Therapy: What Is It, and Does It Work for Adult ADHD?

During the past decade, investigators in several countries have focused on “metacognitive” therapy. Often described as focusing on how one thinks rather than on what one thinks, metacognitive therapies are seen as reaching beyond traditional cognitive therapy, which ordinarily focuses more narrowly on specific pathological thoughts that are believed to underpin specific psychopathologies, such as anxiety and mood disorders. These investigators tested a metacognitive approach for helping patients with ADHD, which focused on executive self-management skills in the attentional domain — specifically, skills addressing time management, organization, and planning.

The researchers carefully selected 88 patients with inattentive or combined subtype …