treating depression evaluation

Question 1

what does it mean when we say it is effective

Answer 1

a large body of evidence to support the effectiveness of CBT for depression

e.g. a study by march et al (2007) compared the effects of CBT with antidepressants drugs and a combination of the two 327 adolescent with a main diagnosis of depression

after 35 weeks 81% of the CBT group, 81% of the antidepressants group, and 86% of the CBT plus antidepressants group were significantly improved

Thus CBT emerged as just as effective as meds and helpful alongside meds

Question 2

what does it mean when we say that CBT may not work for the most severe cases

Answer 2

In some cases, depression can be so severe that patients can not motivate themselves to engage with the hard cognitive work of CBT

They may not be able to pay attention to what is happening in a session

Where this is the case it is possible to treat patients with antidepressant medication and commence CBT when they are more alert motivated

Although it is possible to work around this by using medication, that is a LIMITATION of CBT because it means CBT cannot be used as the sole treatment for all cases of depression

Question 3

what does it mean when we say that CBT overemphasises on cognition

Answer 3

the risk that because of its emphasis on what is happening in the mind of the individual patient CBT may end up minimising the importance of the circumstances in which a patient is living ((McCuster 2014)

e.g. a patient living in poverty or suffering abuse needs to change their circumstances, and any approach to need to therapy emphasises what is happening in the patients’ mind rather than their environment can prevent this

CBT techniques used inappropriately can demotivate people to change their situation