depression

• characteristics?

  • mood disorder
  • involves disturbance of mood, having low mood
• name 2 types of depression?

  1. major depressive disorder - unipolar, mania or depression
  2. bipolar - both mania & depression
• 3 behavioural characteristics?

  1. shift in activity levels
  2. aggression & self harm
  3. sleep
• explain shift in activity levels?

  • reduced/increased
  • feeling lethargic/ agitated by physically pacing, tapping fingers
• explain aggression & self harm?

  • towards themselves or others
  • act of deliberately inflicting pain & damage to own body
  • can include cutting, burning, scratching, toxic amount of drugs/alcohol
  • acts as a form of release from unbearable mental anguish
• explain sleep?

  • hypersomnia - sleeping more
  • insomnia - sleeping less
• 3 emotional characteristics?

  1. low mood - feeling sad all time, persistent presence of feeling lost & empty inside
  2. anger - towards others or yourself, may be frustration
  3. low self esteem - negative feelings about yourself - feeling unlikeable & having poor body image
• 3 cognitive characteristics?

  1. poor concentration - not being able to focus on one task
  2. absolutist thinking - something is either all good or all bad no in between
  3. dwelling on negative - only focusing on negative of a situation & ignoring good
• explain cognitive explantation for depression?

  • caused by faulty thinking
  • ellis abc model - irrational thoughts
  • becks negative triad - negative thoughts
• explain abc model?

  • irrational thoughts lead to depression
  • abnormalities/mental illness are a result of these thoughts
• what does abc stand for?

  • activating event - event that happened in your life
  • beliefs - rational/irrational
  • consequences - feelings & behaviour
• explain negative triad?

  negative thoughts lead to depression

  involves 3 schemas:

  1. negative view of self
  2. negative view of world
  3. negative view of future
• what do the 3 schemas lead to?

  • combine to create a self fulfilling prophecy
  • individual expects the worse
  • as a consequence the worst happens
• what is cbt?

  cognitive behavioural therapy
• what does cbt do?

  works by challenging & changing negative/irrational thoughts to more rational ones
• what is rebt?

  • type of cbt
  • rational emotive behaviour therapy
  • developed by ellis
• what does rebt do?

  • helps client understand their irrational thoughts & their consequences
  • helps to substitute with rational ones
• 1st stage of rebt?

  • identify irrational thoughts - client & therapist build rapport/trust to identify
  • therapist asks questions to guide client
• 2nd stage of rebt?

  • disputing belief system - client is encouraged to challenge thoughts

  3 ways:

  • logical - does this make sense
  • empirical - where is the proof
  • pragmatic - how will this belief help me
  • devils advocate - gets client to argue against their own belief
• 3rd stage of rebt?

  • rational confrontation - client is put in situations that show their beliefs are inaccurate
  • an irrational belief is then turned to a rational one
• 2 * of cognitive explanation?

  1. led to development of effective therapy - smith & glass
  2. evidence to support from grazioli & terry 2000
• 2 X of cognitive explanation?

  1. issues with determining causality
  2. reductionist
• * developed effective treatment for cog exp?

  • smith & glass found that cog therapy has 2nd highest success rate amongst 10 different therapies for depression
  • * valid
  • has real life practical applications in treatment of depression
  • led to positive impact on society
• * evidence to support for cog exp?

  • grazioli & terry examined 65 pregnant women for evidence of faulty thinking by giving a questionnaire before & after birth
  • found that those who judged higher on faulty thinking were more likely to suffer from post natal dep
  • * valid
  • evidence to support the idea that faulty thinking can cause depression
• X determining causality for cog exp?

  • it is not clear whether depression is caused by irrational thoughts or whether the thoughts occur as a result of suffering from depression
  • ? valid
  • hard to establish cause & effect relationship between irrational/negative thoughts & depression
  • questions accuracy of explanation
  • may result in inaccurate treatment that does not tackle problem
• X reductionist for cog exp?

  • reduces depression down to its simplistic level that being negative/irrational thoughts cause it
  • pro - allows us research in detail & is scientific & empirically testable
  • con - ignores other factors such as biological
  • ? valid
  • does not take into account other factors such as genes
  • meaning it can be argued that it is too simplisitic
• 3 * of cbt/rebt?

  1. evidence to show effectiveness from hollon 2005
  2. little ethical issues
  3. practical applications
• 2 X cbt/rebt?

  1. may be other suitable treatments
  2. may not be effective for everyone
• * evidence for effectiveness for rebt?

  • hollon studied depressed patients who has successfully responded to drug therapy/cbt
  • followed them up for 12 months after
  • found that relapse rate for drug therapy was 76% & for cbt was 31%
  • effective
  • been shown to decrease relapse rates for clients after treatment
  • suggests it targets causes not just symptoms
  • successful in treating depression in long term
• * little ethical issues for rebt?

  • cbt aims for an equal relationship between client & therapist
  • work together to agree what problem is & what goals of therapy should be
  • appropriate
  • does not break any ethical guidelines as participants are not put under stress which may cause psychological harm
  • more people are likely to take part so can have positive impact on more lives
• * practical applications for rebt?

  • cbt becoming most widely used therapies
  • due to being short term so more economic for client & health services
  • appropriate
  • able to treat alot of clients very quickly & is cost effective
• X other suitable treatments for rebt?

  • drug therapy has been shown to be effective to similar levels as cbt
  • but is easier for patient as it involves just taking pill rather than altering thoughts
  • ? appropriate
  • may be other treatments better in terms of high extent of effort compared to less strenuous therapies
• X not effective for everyone for rebt?

  • may not treat those with severe dep successfully as its hard to change thoughts
  • requires client to want to change & fully participate so can be harder for those who are unable to put effort in/have learning disabilities who find it too cognitively demanding
  • ? effective & appropriate
  • cannot treat all clients successfully
  • is not accessible for wide range of individuals
  • means other treatments may be more suitable