cognitive approach to treating depression

Question 1

strength:there is research support for the effectiveness of the cog approach to treating depression

Answer 1

E:in a study 327 adolescents found that CBT was equally as effective as antidepressants in treating depression and the combination of them both was most the effective treatment.
E:this provides clear support for the effectiveness for treating depression using the cognitive approach by challenging irrational thoughts. additionally the findings that results were better using the combination of medication and CBT shows that CBT has the ability to work effectively and enhance the effectiveness of drug therapies.moreover there was a large sample size of 327 which is big enough to be representative and can be generalised to a wider population of people with depression.[however the use of adolescent sample means findings may not be representative of the general pop as it may not be generalisable to all age groups].
L:therefore findings provide some support for the effectiveness for the cognitive approach as a way of treating depression but may be weakened by issues with sampling.

Question 2

limitation:may not be appropriate for everyone

Answer 2

E:CBT is a demanding therapy- it requires patients attending regular sessions , engage in analytic processes and often requires additional activities outside of sessions such as homework
E:this style of therapy may not be effective for all patients suffering from depression. for instance a person may be severely depressed so lack the motivation to complete the therapy.in other cases, a patient’s irrational thoughts may be so embedded making it very difficult to be changed. in these cases, other treatment methods such as biological treatments of medication may be more effective. it may be the case that initial treatment with medication can be of use to help reduce the individuals depression in order for them to continue to engage with CBT.
L:therefore the cognitive approach may not be appropriate for all patients with depression

Question 3

strength:there is research support

Answer 3

E: cuijpers conducted a meta analysis which revealed that CBT is a highly effective treatment for depression
E:these findings reveal clear support for the cognitive approach as a way of treating patients with depression.this support os especially compelling as it comes from a meta analysis which is a very powerful type of evidence which derives off of multiple studies. this means that findings are drawn from a large representative sample. this also suggests that findings can be ten generalised to the wider population of depressed people.
L:therefore, support for the effectiveness of CBT is strong because the evidence is conducted from a meta-analysis review.