A03

• What is a strength? (support for behavioural activation)

  -Babyak et al. (2000) studies 156 adults with major depressive disorder who were assigned to either an aerobic course, standalone drug treatment or both

  -All ppts showed significant improvement

  -However after 6 months those in the exercise group had lower relapse rates than those in the medication group showing the effectiveness of BA
• What is weakness? ?(may not work in severe cases)

  -CBT relies on the patients willingness to participate and in severe cases patients may lack motivation.

  -In this instance patients would be treated with medication before attending CBT sessions

  -This means depression cannot be a stand alone treatment for all cases of depression
• What is another weakness? (ignores past)

  -CBT focuses on a patients present and future, ignoring past

  -Other therapies exist which place emphasis on the past exploring how a patients childhood may have contributed to depression

  -Assimilation therapy begins with exploration of the patients past and when they're ready moves on to the cognitive techniques to address the present/future
• What is another weakness? (therapist may lead to high success rate)

  -Research suggests that it may not be CBT that leads to high success rate but rather the therapist themselves

  -Patient-therapist relationships are essential in effective therapy treatments for depression

  -Thus we may not be able to attribute improvements to depressive symptoms to CBT solely as it may be therapist themselves increasing effectiveness
• What is another strength

  -CBT is one of the most popular and successful therapies for treating depression

  March et al.(2007) found that CBT was more successful at treating depression in adolescents than drug therapy

  -This means that it has good application as CBT is effective in reducing symptoms of depression