With more attention to students’ mental health, cognitive behavioral therapy and applied mathematics education reform are combined to study the impact of cognitive disorders on students’ psychological problems caused by depression, anxiety disorder, and irrational cognition.

Data processing was conducted using SPSS26.0 and Excel software to analyze the overall situation of students’ cognitive impairment in applied mathematics before and after the educational reform under cognitive behavioral therapy. The research explores the correlation between applied mathematics scores and cognitive impairment, and analyzes the impact of cognitive behavioral therapy combined with applied mathematics education reform on students’ cognitive impairment.

In the process of learning applied mathematics, students in the same grade have moderate cognitive impairment. Students who did not receive intervention treatment had a significant degree of cognitive impairment, and the correlation coefficient between applied mathematics scores and cognitive impairment was 0.991. Students who undergo cognitive behavioral therapy but do not consider the application of mathematical teaching reform have moderate cognitive impairment. Students who combine cognitive behavioral therapy with applied mathematics education reform have mild cognitive impairment. At this time, the correlation coefficient between applied mathematics scores and cognitive impairment is 0.893, with a significance level of 0.00<0.01, indicating a strong correlation.

Cognitive behavioral therapy and applied mathematics education reform have a positive impact on students’ cognitive impairment, which has good practical value for the treatment of cognitive impairment.