cognitive treatment of depression

• Cognitive treatments for depression are based on the assumption that faulty thought processes make a person vulnerable to depression
• Cognitive behavioural therapy ( CBT ) involves elements from both cognition and behaviour. The cognitive element is identifying the irrational thoughts, attempting to replace them with positive ones. The behavioural element encourages patients to test their beliefs through behavioural experiments and homework
• Components to CBT :

  Initial assessment

  Goal setting

  Identifying irrational thoughts and challenging them

  Homework
• Initial assessment- the patient and therapist identify the patient 's problems
• Goal setting - the patient and therapist agree on a set of goals based on the identified problems
• Beck and Ellis 's CBT both identify negative and irrational thoughts, however they do it differently
• Beck 's CBT:

  The therapist helps the patient identify thoughts in relation to themselves, the world and their future using the negative triad. The patient will then work together with the therapist to challenge these irrational thoughts, discussing evidence for and against them. The patient will be encouraged to test the validity of their negative thoughts
• Ellis 's REBT:

  The ABC model is developed other to include D ( dispute ) and E ( effective ).

  After identifying the irrational thoughts, the therapist will dispute the patients irrational beliefs, to replace them with more effective ones.

  Logical dispute - the therapist questions the logic of the patient's thoughts

  Empirical dispute - the therapist seeks evidence for a patient's thoughts
• AO3. There is research evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of treating depression. Ellis claimed a 90 % success rate for REBT, averaging 27 sessions to complete. This shows that REBT does treat depression. However, he also acknowledged that the therapy was not always effective, meaning that some clients didn't put their revised beliefs into action
• AO3. There are individual differences present in CBT. Ellkin says that CBT appears to be less suitable for people who have high levels of irrational beliefs. The success depends on the responsiveness of the patients, and as they are depressed they may not be motivated to engage in CBT. This means that a different treatment may be more effective for some patients
• AO3. CBT has been criticised for its overemphasis on the role of cognition as the primary cause of depression. Some psychologists have criticised CBT for not taking into account other factors such as social circumstances which might contribute to a person's depression. For example, a patient suffering from domestic abuse does not need their beliefs changed, but needs to change their circumstances. This means that CBT would be ineffective in treating them
• AO3. CBT is proven to be effective by research studies. March ( 2007 ) compared the effects of CBT with antidepressants and a combination of the two and found that at 36 weeks, 81 % of the CBT group showed improvement and 81 % of the antidepressant group showed improvement. This shows that CBT is just as effective as medication, meaning it is successful