Chapter 8 - Treatments for Depressive Disorders Flashcards
What is the psychological approach to treating unipolar depression?
Psychological treatments include psychodynamic, behavioural and cognitive fields
What is the oldest of all modern psychotherapies?
psychodynamic therapy
What is psychodynamic therapy?
Based on the belief that unipolar depression is a result from unconscious grief over real or imagined losses, as well as, excessive dependence on other people, therapists seek to help clients bring these underlying issues to consciousness and work them through
How is therapy conducted?
Encourage the client to associate freely during therapy, suggest interpretations of the client’s associations, dreams, and displays of resistance and transference; and help the person review past events feelings (free association)
What are the expectations of psychodynamic therapy?
Gain awareness of the losses in their lives, become less dependent on others, cope with losses more effectively, and make corresponding changes in their functioning
What have researchers found about psychodynamic therapy?
Long-term psychodynamic therapy is only occasionally helpful in cases of unipolar depression
What are two factors that limit the effectiveness of this approach?
Clients may be too passive to join fully in the subtle therapy discussions. Clients may become discouraged and end treatment too early when this long0term approach is unable to provide quick relief
What sort of cases does psychodynamic therapy help the most?
Depression that is modest/moderate in severity and that involve a clear history of childhood loss or trauma, a long-standing sense of emptiness, feelings of perfectionism, and extreme self-criticism
What performs better short-term or long-term psychodynamic therapies?
Short-term psychodynamic therapies, especially when combined with psychotropic medications
What is cognitive-behavioural therapy?
Combine behavioural and cognitive techniques. Seek to get the clients moving again- to engage in and enjoy more activities (behavioural). Guide clients to think in more adaptive, less negative ways (cognitive).
What are the two leading approaches in cognitive-behavioural therapy?
Behavioural activation and cognitive therapy
What is behavioural activation?
A therapy for depression in which the therapist works systematically to increase the number of constructive and pleasurable activities and events in a clients life
Who is Peter Lewinsohn?
Ties mood to the rewards one experiences in life, behavioural activation is built off this work. He combines bother behavioural activation with cognitive strategies
What are the three approaches in behavioural activation?
1) Reintroduce depressed clients to pleasurable events and activities. 2) Consistently reward non depressive behaviours and withhold rewards for depressive behaviours. 3) Help clients improve their social skills
What do Behavioural activation theorists argue?
People who are depressed, their negative behaviours (crying, complaining, etc) keep others at a distance, reducing chances for rewarding experiences and interaction. To correct this, therapists guide clients to monitor their negative behaviours and to try more positive ones
What is the contingency management approach?
Systematically ignoring a client’s depressive behaviours while praising or otherwise rewarding constructive statements and behaviour, friends and family can be recruited to help with this part of the treatment
What is Cognitive therapy?
A therapy developed by Aaron beck that helps people identify and change the maladaptive assumptions and negative ways of thinking that help cause their psychological disorders
How does Aaron Beck view unipolar depression
Result from a pattern of negative thinking that may be triggered by current upsetting situations
How does Aaron Beck’s therapy differ from Albert Elli’s rational-emotive therapy?
Beck’s is tailored to the specific cognitive errors and behaviours found in depression
What are the four phases of Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy?
Phase 1: Increasing Activities and Elevating Mood
Phase 2: Challenging Automatic Thoughts
Phase 3: Identifying Negative Thinking and Biases
Phase 4: Changing Primary attitudes
What does Phase 2 entail:
Therapists educate clients on their negative thoughts and have clients recognize and record automatic thoughts, then test the reality behind the thoughts with the therapist (which prove to be groundless)
Phase 3: Identifying Negative Thinking and Biases
Therapists show them how illogical thinking processed are contributing to these thoughts. Guide clients to recognize that their interpretations of events have negative bias and help the change that style of interpretation
Phase 4: Changing Primary attitudes
Help clients chance the maladaptive assumptions that set the stage for their depression in the first place, often encourage clients to test their attitudes
What is New-Wave Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, use mindfulness training and other cognitive-behavioural techniques to help depressed clients recognize and accept their negative cognitions simply as streams of thinking that flow through their minds, rather than as valuable guides for behaviours and decisions
Does New-Wave Cognitive behavioural therapy agree with Aaron Beck?
No, they do not think individuals must fully discard their negative cognitions in order to overcome depression