AO3

• a strength is that there is a lot of supporting evidence towards the treatment of depression. March 2007 compared CBT to antidepressants and a combination
• what was the results of March's study?


  81% of CBT and 86% of CBT and AD had improved, shows that CBT is just as significant on its own as well as with drugs
• a weakness is that it doesn't work for everyone due to how challenging they might find it. some depression is so serious that the client might not have the motivation to contribute to the sessions. As well as this, it is unsuitable for people with learning disorders due to the complex rational thinking. this means it may not be the appropriate method for a specific range of people with depression
• a weakness is that we do not know if irrational thinking is the cause of depression. Therefore, we might be solving something that may have no correlation to depression.
• a strength is that it is cost-effective as it only takes 6-12 sessions and it is seen widely as the first choice of treatment by public health services eg. NHS. This means that it can be used effectively in the national health service
• a weakness is that there are concerns about relapses. This is because whilst it only takes 6-12 sessions to improve in CBT, there is no support for it having a long-term effect. Therefore, this means that it would have to be repeated for CBT to have a long-term effect on a client or either use drug therapies alongside CBT to give client a long-term effect