Depression Flashcards
Behavioural Characteristics of depression
activity levels- reduced levels of energy, tend to withdraw from work, school and social life, may not be able to get out of bed
Psychomotor agitation- struggle to relax
Disruption to sleep/eating behaviour
Aggression and Self harm
Emotional Characteristics of depression
lowered mood
anger
lowered self-esteem
Cognitive characteristics of depression
poor concentration- unable to stick to a task, hard to make decisions, interferes with work
attending to and dwell on the negative- inclined to pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives
bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones
Absolutist thinking- black and white thinking. when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster
Becks cognitive theory of depression
faulty info processing- we attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positive
negative self-schemas- interpreting all info in a negative way
negative triad
negative view of the world- the world is a cold hard place
negative view of the future- no chance the economy will get better
negative view of the self- low self-esteem
Ellis ABC Model
depression occurs when an activating event triggers an irrational belief which in turn produces a consequence
activating event- when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs
beliefs- musterbation- always succeed perfection
Becks AO3
Supporting Evidence
Grazoli and Terry (2000)- assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitive vulnerability and depression before and after birth. Women who were more likely to have cognitive vulnerability were more likely to suffer from post-natal depression
cognition can be seen before depression occurs
AO3 Becks
Doesn’t explain all aspects of depression
Depression is complex
some depressed patients are deeply angry and Beck cannot easily explain this extreme emotion
some sufferers experience hallucinations and bizarre beliefs
Some suffer Cotard syndrome- the delusion that they’re zombies
Becks AO3
Practical Application in CBT
form the basis of CBT
- All cognitive aspects of depression can be identified and challenged in CBT
therapist can challenge them and encourage the patient to test whether they’re true
AO3 ABC
Partial Explanation
no doubt in some cases of depression follow activating events
call this reactive depression- different from the kind of depression that arises without an obvious case
only applies to some kinds of depression
AO3 ABC
Practical application in CBT
led to successful therapy
challenging irrational beliefs, a person can reduce their depression is supported by Lipsky et al
irrational beliefs have some role in depression
AO3 ABC
doesn’t explain all aspects of depression
doesn’t easily explain the anger associated with depression or the fact that some patients suffer hallucinations and delusions
CBT- Beck
identify automatic thoughts about the world, the self and the future
aims to help patients test the reality of their negative belief. Gave them homework to record when they enjoyed an event or when people were nice to them
then in the future sessions if patients say no one is nice to them, the therapist can then produce this evidence and use it to prove them wrong
CBT- REBT
extends the ABC model to an ABCDE
D= dispute E=effect
identify and dispute irrational thoughts
i.e- a patient might talk about how unlucky they’ve been or how unfair things seem
An REBT technique would identify these as examples of utopianism and challenge this as an irrational thought- break the link between negative life and events and depression
Empirical argument- disputing whether there’s actual evidence to support the irrational belief
Logical argument- disputing whether the negative thought logically follows from the facts
Cognitive Approach to treating depression AO3
Effectiveness
March et al (2007)- compared the effects of CBT with antidepressant drugs and a combination of the two in 327 adolescents with a main diagnosis of depression
After 36 weeks, 81% of the CBT group, 81% of the antidepressant group and 86% of the CBT plus group were significantly improved
-Shows that CBT can be just as effective as medication
Good chance for making CBT the first choice of treatment in public health care systems like the NHS
Cognitive approach to treating depression AO3
May not work for severe cases
some patients are so bad they cant motivate themselves to engage with CBT
may not be able to pay attention in sessions
possible to treat patients with antidepressant medication and commence CBT when they’re more motivated
suggests CBT cant be used as the sole treatment for all causes of depression
