The Cognitive Approach To Treating Depression Flashcards
What is meant by cognitive behavioural therapy?
A therapy which is a combination of cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy.
Outline the steps involved in Beck’s cognitive therapy.
-The patient tests hypotheses about the validity of their irrational thoughts - when they realise their thoughts do not match reality, this will change their schemas making their irrational thoughts be discarded.
-The client is set homework for example, keeping a diary where they identify situations which trigger negative thoughts.
-Behavioural activation is also encouraged by the therapist - this is where the client participates in activities they used to enjoy for example, going to a party and socialising.
Outline the steps involved in Ellis’ rational emotive behaviour therapy.
-The therapist confronts the client’s irrational thoughts.
-The client is challenged to provide evidence for their irrational beliefs.
-Shame attacking exercises are also encouraged - this is where the client performs a behaviour they fear doing in front of others.
What is one strength of the cognitive approach to treating depression?
- Research support.
-March randomly assigned pps to one of 3 groups: CBT, antidepressants and combined treatment.
After 36 weeks, both the CBT and antidepressants group had an effectiveness rate of 81 percent.
-CBT also had a reduction in suicidal events as opposed to the antidepressants group. In the combined treatment group, 86 percent of the group were significantly improved.
Therefore, CBT is likely to be seen as the first choice of treatment in the public health care system due to its results and cost.
What are two limitations of cognitive behavioural therapy?
- Issue surrounding relapse rates.
Ali et al assessed depression in 439 clients every month for 12 months following a course of cbt - found that 42 percent of clients relapsed into depression within 6 months of ending the treatment.
-Additionally, 53 percent of clients relapsed within a year.
Therefore, cbt may need to be repeated multiple times before long term effects can be seen however, this may be impractical due to the draining nature of cognitive behavioural therapy.
- There are alternative treatments.
March found that drug therapies are just as effective as cognitive therapy.
Drug therapies require a lot less effort than cognitive therapies and so may be more appropriate when dealing with severely depressed people.
-Moreover, attrition rates are likely to be high in cognitive therapies due to the effort required from the client and so more people are likely to choose drug therapies over cognitive therapies.
Therefore, for the most effective results, cbt and drug therapies should be combined however, drug therapies are more likely to be the widely chosen treatment as they require minimum effort.
