Depression

Question 1

What is depression according to the dsm-5?

Answer 1

All forms of depression and depressive disorders are characterised by changes to mood.

Question 2

What are 5 categories of depression?

Answer 2

Major depressive disorder
Persistent depressive disorder
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder

Question 3

Whats major depressive disorder?

Answer 3

Major depressive disorder - severe but often short term

Question 4

What is persistent depressive disorder?

Answer 4

Persistent depressive disorder - long term or recurring depression, including sustained major depression (dysthymia)

Question 5

What is disruptive mood dysregulation disorder?

Answer 5

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder - childhood temper tantrums

Question 6

Whats premenstrual dysphoric disorder?

Answer 6

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder – disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation.

Question 7

What are the 3 behavioural characteristics of depression?

Answer 7

Reduced activity levels
Disruption to eating and sleeping patterns
Aggression and self harm

Question 8

What is reduced activity levels?

Answer 8

People with depression have reduced energy levels = lethargy
Knock-on effect
Withdraw from work, education and social life
Severe cases = people cannot get out of bed
In some cases, it has the opposite effects and people develop psychomotor agitation. Individuals cannot relax and may pace the room.

Question 9

What is disruption to eating and sleeping schedule?

Answer 9

May experience insomnia (premature waking) or increased need for sleep (hypersomnia).
Appetite and eating may increase or decrease
Could lead to weight loss or gain
Behaviour is disrupted by depression

Question 10

What is aggression and self harm?

Answer 10

Irritable
Can become verbally or physically aggressive
Displayed differently depending on the individual
Can be aggression directed towards themselves including self-harm behaviour or suicide attempts

Question 11

What are the 3 emotional characteristics of depression?

Answer 11

Lowered mood
Lowered self esteem
Anger

Question 12

What is Lowered mood?

Answer 12

‘depressed’ = lowered mood (I.E. Feeling sad or low)
More to clinical depression than just feeling sad.
Lowered mood is still part of clinical depression
More pronounced than daily lethargy and sadness
Feelings of worthlessness and emptiness

Question 13

What is anger?

Answer 13

Tend to experience more negative emotions than positive
Anger also frequently experiences alongside sadness
Can be extreme anger directed at others or themselves
Sometimes, emotions of anger lead to aggressive or self-harm behaviour.

Question 14

What is lowered mood?

Answer 14

‘depressed’ = lowered mood (I.E. Feeling sad or low)
More to clinical depression than just feeling sad.
Lowered mood is still part of clinical depression
More pronounced than daily lethargy and sadness
Feelings of worthlessness and emptiness

Question 15

What are the 3 cognitive characteristics of depression?

Answer 15

Poor concentration
Attending and dwelling on the negative
Absolutist thinking

Question 16

What is poor concentration?

Answer 16

Unable to stick to a task
Difficult to make decisions
Can interfere with everyday life

Question 17

What is attending to and dwelling on the negative?

Answer 17

Inclined to pay more attention to negative aspects and ignore positives. (glass half empty)
Bias towards recalling unhappy events- opposite to non-depressed people

Question 18

What is absolutist thinking?

Answer 18

Most situations are not all-good or all-bad
Depressed people tend to think this way
‘black or white thinking’
Unfortunate situation = absolute disaster

Question 19

What is the cognitive approach to explaining depression?

Answer 19

Means mental processes
So is focused on how our thoughts, perceptions and attention affect behaviour.
Key researchers= aaron beck (1967) and albert ellis (1962)
Beck’s negative triad
Ellis’s abc model

Question 20

What is becks negative triad?

Answer 20

Explains why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others.
Focuses on cognitions that create the vulnerability.

Question 21

What are the 3 parts of becks negative triad?

Answer 21

Faulty information processing
Negative self-schema
The negative triad

Question 22

What is faulty information processing?

Answer 22

Attend to negative aspects of a situation more than positives
Blow small problems out of proportion and think in black-and white terms (cognitive characteristics)

Question 23

Whats negative self schema?

Answer 23

A ‘package’ of ideas developed through experience.
Mental framework for interpretation of sensory information.
Self-schema= package of ideas about yourself.
Used to interpret the world around us.
Negative self-schema = negative interpretation of the world

Question 24

Whats the negative triad?

Answer 24

Dysfunctional view of themselves developed because of three types of negative thinking.
Automatic negative thoughts regardless of the reality of what is happening around them.

Question 25

What does the negative triad consist of?

Answer 25

Consists of:
Negative view of the world – ‘the world is a cold hard place.’ there is no hope
Negative view of the future – ‘there isn’t much chance that the economy would get better.’ reduce hopefulness and enhance depression
Negative view of the self – ‘I am a failure.’ enhance existing depressive feelings because they confirm low self-esteem

Question 26

What is Ellis abc model?

Answer 26

Good mental health is the result of rational thinking (happy and free from pain).
Depression and anxiety are the result of irrational thoughts (anything which interferes with us being happy and free from pain).
Used abc model to explain how irrational thoughts affect behaviour and emotional state.

Question 27

Ellis abc model

What is A?

Answer 27

A – activating event
Irrational thoughts are triggered by external events.
We get depressed when we experience negative events which can trigger irrational beliefs
I.E. Failing an important test or ending a relationship

Question 28

Ellis abc model

What is B?

Answer 28

B – beliefs
Range of irrational beliefs
‘I-can’t-stand-it-itis’= major disaster whenever something does not go smoothly
‘utopianism’ = life is always meant to be fair

Question 29

ELLIS ABC MODEL

What is C?

Answer 29

C – Consequences
Activating event triggers irrational beliefs = emotional and behavioural consequences
Must always success>failure>trigger depression

Question 30

What is cognitive behavioural therapy?

Answer 30

Cognitive behavioural therapy
Most common treatment for depression and other mental health problems.
Cognitive and behavioural aspects

Question 31

What are the cognative aspects of CBT?

Answer 31

Cognitive: client and therapist work together to identify issues and goals for the therapy.
Create a plan together to identify and challenge irrational thoughts.

Question 32

What are the behavioural aspects of cbt?

Answer 32

Cognitive behaviour therapy

Behavioural: working together to change negative and irrational thoughts and put more effective behaviours in place

Question 33

Cognitive approach to treating depression?

Answer 33

Three treatments based on explanations
Beck’s cognitive therapy
Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy (rebt)
Behavioural activation

Question 34

What is becks cognitive therapy?

What does cognitive therapy also involve?

Answer 34

Beck’s cognitive therapy
Identify negative triad thoughts and challenge them.

Cognitive therapy also involves testing the reality of negative beliefs.
Client as scientist.
Negative belief of ‘everyone hates me’ > write down an occasion when someone is nice to you.
Acts as evidence for future sessions when client may bring up negative thoughts, the therapist has evidence to dispute this.

Question 35

What is Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy (rebt)?

Answer 35

Extension of abc model.
Includes abcde model (d = dispute and e = effort)
Central ideas = identify and dispute irrational thoughts.
E.G. Client thinks their life is unfair, therapist challenges utopianism and irrational beliefs, in the form of a vigorous argument.
Idea is to break the link between the negative life event and depression.
Empirical argument: is there actually evidence to support this irrational belief?
Logical argument: does the negative thought logically follow from the facts presented?

Question 36

Whats behavioural activation?

Answer 36

Behavioural activation
Increased depression => increased avoidance of difficult situations => isolation => maintains or worsens symptoms.
Goal is to gradually decrease avoidance and isolation and increase engagement with activities to improve mood

Therapist aims to reinforce these types of activities.