Treating Depression Flashcards
What is Logical Disputing? Example?
The therapist challenged the underlying logic behind an irrational thought. (E.g. “if a person fails to smile at someone, does that always mean they hate them? Could there be other reasons besides hatred why someone fails to smile at another person?”
What is Empirical Disputing? Example?
The therapist encourages the patient to consider if their irrational thoughts have sufficient evidence. (E.g. “Is there any evidence that they don’t hate you, e.g they have smiled at you before?”)
What is Homework? Example?
The therapist encourages the patient to challenge their beliefs outside of the therapy session by gathering evidence to test their irrational belief. ( E.g. if a person believes their friend doesn’t like them anymore because they haven’t asked them to go out, the person could be challenged by initiating a meet up with this person).
What is Behavioural Activation?
The therapist helps the patient identify activities (e.g staying in their bed) that trigger an emotional response (e.g. low mood). Once identified the therapist helps the patient find alternative behaviours (e.g. meeting friends & exercising).
What is the research support for the effectiveness of the cognitive approach to treating depression?
In a study of 327 adolescents, March (2007) found that CBT and antidepressants medication were equally effective as treatments of depression, whilst combination of medication and CBT was the most effective treatment. The finding that CBT works just as well as antidepressants provides support for treating depression through irrational thoughts. However, the finding that the best patient outcomes came from a combination of medication & CBT demonstrates that CBT has the ability to enhance the effectiveness of drug therapies. But, the fact that CBT works better when combined with medication shows that depression is not being effectively treated alone with just CBT. These results are especially compelling to the large sample size (327), meaning it is representative therefore findings can be generalised meaning it has a strong population validity.
Why has some research challenged the effectiveness of the cognitive approach to treating depression?
Luborsky (2002) found very small differences between various talking therapies including CBT. Maybe in fact the benefit of this therapy wasn’t CBT but the fact that depressed patients had someone to talk to. This undermines the theoretical basis of CBT as it suggests that the effectiveness lies in providing a sympathetic ear rather than challenging irrational thoughts. The method of review when collecting this secondary data is similar to meta analysis as it studies multiple findings to decide one conclusion. Overall this doesn’t suggest that CBT when treating depression is ineffective but that it is not especially effective.
Why is the cognitive approach to treating depression not appropriate for everyone?
CBT is a demanding treatment for depression as it requires attendance to regular sessions, engaging in an analytical process and completing homework outside of therapy sessions. Some people may have such severe depression that they are unable to engage in therapy. For some people, biological treatments may be more effective either entirely or to help reduce a patients depression enough so they are able to engage with CBT.
