Treatment of depression Flashcards
What is CBT?
Cognitive behavioural therapy
The most commonly used psychological treatment for depression
What are irrational/dysfunctional thoughts?
Thoughts that are likely to interfere with a person’s happiness
What are the features of CBT?
- Patient and therapist work together to identify goals to help overcome the patient’s problems
- then works to change negative and irrational thoughts
- Put more effective behaviours in place
What is Beck’s cognitive therapy?
- identify automatic negative thoughts about the world, the self and the future
- Once identified they are then challenged which can be done directly by testing the reality of their beliefs
- They can be given homework to create evidence which can be used against them in future sessions
What is Ellis’ REBT?
Rational emotive behavioural therapy
What is Ellis’ REBT model an extension of?
ABC model into ABCDE where D stands for dispute and E stands for effect
What does Ellis’ REBT therapy involve?
- Identify and dispute irrational thoughts which may involve a vigorous argument
- the argument aims to break the link between negative life events and depression
What is a logical argument?
It involves disputing whether the negative thought logically follows from the fact
What is behavioural activation?
Encourage the depressed patient to be more active and engage in enjoyable activities
What did March et al (2007) find?
Compared the effects of CBT with antidepressant drugs and a combination of the two in 327 adolescents
After 36 weeks 81% of CBT patients had improved and 81% of antidepressants had improved
Why might CBT be a good choice for the NHS?
It is just as effective as antidepressants
Why might CBT not work in severe cases?
The people mightn’t be able to motivate themselves to complete the difficult tasks and may not pay attention to the tasks
Why cant CBT be used as a sole treatment?
Some people may need drugs to find the motivation to take part in the tasks
What did Rosenberg suggest?
The difference between CBT and other treatments such as systematic desensitisation might actually be quite small and as all therapies require a relationship between the patient and therapist, this may be the reason for the success rate
Why is CBT not good for those who want to explore their past?
it focuses on the present and the future and doesn’t look into the past so it can be frustrating for the patient
