Treating depression

• P: Ellis claimed a 90% success rate for REBT, taking an average of 27 sessions to complete the treatment.

  E: REBT have done well in outcome studies of depression . a review by Cuijpers of 75 studies found that CBI was superior to no treatment. Ellis recognised that the therapy was not always effective, and suggested that this could be because some clients did not put their revised beliefs into action.

  L: This suggests that REBT is effective, but other factors relating to both client and

  therapist may limit its effectiveness.
• P: CBT appears to be more suitable for some individuals than others.

  E: CBT appears to be less suitable for people who have high levels of irrational beliefs that are both rigid and resistant to change. CBT also appears to be less suitable in situations where high levels of stress in the individual reflect realistic stressors in the person's life that therapy cannot resolve. some people prefer to share their worries with a therapist without getting involved with CBT.

  L: A limitation of CBT is the fact that individual differences affect its effectiveness.
• P: The belief that changing behaviour can go some way to alleviating depression is supported by a study on the beneficial effects of exercise.

  E: Babyak studied 156 adult volunteers diagnosed with depressive disorder. They were randomly assigned to a 4 month course of aerobic exercise, drug treatment or a combination of the two. Clients in all three groups showed improvement at the end of the 4 months. 6 months after, those in the exercise group had lower relapse rates than those in the medication group

  L: This shows that a change in behaviour can indeed be beneficial in treating depression.