A recent meta-analysis (a study that collates and analyses existing studies to date) has compared cognitive therapy to exposure therapy to try to find out which is most effective.
A number of studies have already found these components to yeild largely the same effects. This study combined the results of 20 separate studies that directly compared cognitive therapy to exposure therapy for anxiety disorders.
This study has found no difference in the effects for panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, but found that cognitive therapy had a better effect for social anxiety than exposure therapy did.
Read the abstract here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/11/200/abstract
So in a nut-shell – both kinds of therapy are effective options, it’s down to your preference. Cognitive-behaviour therapy which combines these two approaches has been shown in some studies to be even more effective than either component on its own.
Ougrin, D. (2011). Efficacy of exposure versus cognitive therapy in anxiety disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry 2011, 11:200 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-11-200
