CBT

• what is CBT?

  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is the most commonly used psychological treatment for depression. CBT begins with an assessment in which the patient and therapist work together to identify the patients problems, jointly identifying goals and putting a plan together to achieve them.
• Beck's CBT: goal based

  • the therapist will help the patient to identify negative thoughts about the world, the self and the future using Beck's cognitive triad. The patient and the therapist will work together to challenge these irrational and negative thoughts, by discussing evidence for and against them.
  • the patient will be encouraged to test the validity of their negative thoughts and they may be set homework such as record when people were nice to them.
  • The aim is to challenge and test their negative thoughts and as a result, their beliefs begin to change
• Ellis's rational emotive behavioural therapy: dispute based

  • achieved through dispute (argument) and effects
  • the therapist will dispute the patients irrational beliefs and replace them with more effective beliefs and attitudes
  • logical dispute: questioning the logic of the patients thoughts: 'does the way you think about that situation make any sense'
  • empirical dispute: where the therapist seeks evidence for the thoughts, 'where is the evidence that the beliefs are true?'
  • patient can be set homework just like Beck's CBT
• what is a limitation of CBT?

  • biological drug treatment is more fast-acting than therapy
  • anti-depressants work quicker to reduce serotonin in the brain, with very little effort on the patients part
  • this is useful when the patient is too ill or has severe depression that they are unable to attend the therapy, its also quicker
  • this means CBT cannot be used as a sole treatment for depression
• what is a strength of CBT?

  • research support from March (2007)
  • he found that CBT was as effective as anti-depressants. 327 adolescents with depression were studied, after 36 weeks, 81% of the antidepressants group and 81% of the CBT group had significantly improved
  • 86% of the CBT with antidepressants group had significantly improved which suggests that a combination of both treatments may be more effective
• what is a limitation of CBT?

  • it has been criticised for its overemphasis on the role of cognitions
  • CBT does not consider other factors such as social circumstances
  • for example, a person who is suffering from domestic violence or abuse does not need to change their negative/irrational beliefs, but in fact needs to change their circumstances
  • therefore, CBT would be ineffective for treating those patients until their circumstances have changed