Cognitive therapy: applications for health promotion, disease prevention, and disease management.

Cognitive therapy is a short-term therapeutic intervention that can be helpful for patients with or at risk for health problems that may be caused or exacerbated by stress and has implications for nursing practice across the biologic, psychosocial and spiritual domains. This article outlines the psychophysiology of stress, examines cognitive therapy as an intervention to mediate its harmful effects, reviews clinical situations in which it has been shown to be effective, details the steps of the process, and explores the unique perspective that nurses bring to its application.