Introduction

Although cognitive behavioral treatments (CBTs) are empirically established for a wide array of psychological disorders, a fair proportion of patients fail to respond to these treatments. For these reasons, clinicians and researchers continue to modify and adapt CBT for refractory populations. The purpose of this special section is to highlight adaptations of CBTs for disorders that are traditionally more difficult to treat and/or recalcitrant in nature. These articles focus on chronic depression, panic disorder with moderate to severe agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse, and alcohol dependence. A description of each treatment is provided in each article, along with relevant clinical case examples illustrating adaptations of the techniques.