Cognitive approach to treating depression

• What is the form of therapy used to treat depression?

  • Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
• what method did ellis develop to challenge irrational thoughts?

  Extended his ABC model to DEF

  • D: disputing irrational thoughts and beliefs
  • E: effects of disputing and effective attitude to life
  • F: new feelings or emotions produced
• What are the three types of disputing?

  • Logical- self defeating beliefs don’t follow logically from the information available (Does thinking in this way make sense?)
  • Empirical- self defeating beliefs may not be consistent with reality (where is the proof for this belief?)
  • Pragmatic- emphasises lack of usefulness of self defeating beliefs (how is this belief likely to help me?)
• What 3 concepts/methods does CBT usually provide?

  • Homework- completing assignments between therapy sessions which are important for testing irrational beliefs against reality
  • Behavioural action- encourages depressed people to be more active, as being active leads to rewards that are an antidote to depression (reinforcement). Client and therapist identify pleasurable activities and deal with cognitive obstacles
  • Unconditional positive regard- conviction of client of their value as a human being- facilitates a change in beliefs and attitudes
• Two advantages of the cognitive approach to treating depression?

  • 😊research support- review by cuijpers showed of 75 studies CBT was suprerior to no treatment- had equal effectiveness as any other. But Ellis suggested therapy was not always useful because clients didn't always put revised beliefs into action
  • 😊support for behavioural action- babyak et al- exercise in depressed adults caused lower relapse rates in depressive disorder, so change in behaviour is beneficial in treating depression
• Two disadvantages of the cognitive explanation for treating depression?

  • ☹️individual diffs- less suitable for people with high levels of irrational beliefs who are resistant to change, don’t want to put that much effort into changing
  • ☹️alternative treatments- antidepressants such as ssri requires less effort in treating depression. However, review by cuijpers et Al showed CBT especially effective when used in conjunction with drugs