CBT interventions for pediatric Type 1 diabetes mellitus

The chapter addresses CBT principles for dealing with emotional difficulties and psychopathology that may occur in children and adolescent patients as well as in their parents, due to Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). We introduce the therapeutic methods in classical cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and those of the third wave of CBT, and various techniques that help the patient to regulate emotions, understanding the essence of thoughts as mental events that appear in the mind and not as reality, expanding the focus of attention, identifying values, and committing to them and to mindfulness. Four central issues are discussed: interventions upon pediatric T1DM onset; interventions for chronicity of pediatric T1DM; interventions for fear of hypoglycemia; and interventions for eating disorders that relate to T1DM. We make the distinction between the therapeutic work of CBT in children and adolescents and discuss the different impact that parents have on children at different ages. The main factor in childhood found to be most related to adherence to treatment is the parent’s nonefficient coping model, while among adolescents it was more rebellion and an attempt to differentiate their coping from that of their parents.