Cognitive approach to depression

• major depression is a mental disorder that affects someones mood
• one symptom of depression is having a low mood for a long period of time
• one symptom of depression is a loss of pleasure which when a person stops enjoying things that they used to like
• one symptom of depression is irrational negative beliefs which is when u think about the future in a negative way often
• one symptom of depression is difficulty concentrating, which is when u find difficult to pay attention to the task at hand
• one symptom of depression is a change in appetite, this is when you eat more or less than normal
• one symptom of depression is a change in sleep pattern, this when you sleep more or less than normal
• one symptom of depression is social withdrawal, this when you stop socialising with people
• to be diagnosed with depression a patient needs to have 5 or more of the symptoms for a period of 2+ weeks and one of the symptoms has to be an emotional symptom
• a manic episode is when some experiences a really high mood for a week and a depressive episode is when someone has a really low mood for a week
• major depression is when someone has 5 or more symptoms of depression all the time, where as manic depression is when someone feels really happy for a week and then really sad the next week and it just repeats
• according to ellis, when people experience negative events, it happens in 3 steps. first the activating event occurs, second people form a belief about the event, this influences the person thoughts and feeling and then thirdly leads to a consequence
• Ellis ABC model: activating event - belief - consequence
• according to ellis' ABC model depression is caused by the irrational negative beliefs, and people experience symptoms of depression as a consequence of these beliefs
• beck believed that irrational beliefs caused depression
• according to beck the first kind of negative belief was about the self
• according to beck the second kind of irrational belief is about the world
• according to beck the third kind of irrational belief is about the future
• becks model of depression is called the negative triad
• according to beck the negative triad is obtained by negative schemas
• according to beck cognitive bias also contributes to obtaining the negative triad, this is where you only pay attention to some types of information
• a limitation of the cognitive approach to depression is that not everyone with depression will have irrational beliefs, studies show that participants without major depression felt as if they had more control over a light switching on and off than those with major depression when infact they had no control at all, this shows that people with major depression have less irrational beliefs than those without it
• a limitation of the cognitive approach to depression is that irrational beliefs may not be the only cause of depression as there may be other non cognitive factors involved in depression
• cognitive behavioural therapy attempts to remove the negative beliefs that cause depression
• the first step in cognitive behavioural therapy is is encouraging the patients to identify their negative beliefs
• the second step in cognitive behavioural therapy is challenging the patients negative beliefs
• the third step in cognitive behavioural therapy is giving the patient homework to gather evidence to test their hypothesis
• the fourth step in cognitive behavioural therapy is is to evaluate the evidence together
• cuijpers et al conducted a review looking at studies comparing people with depression who have retrieved cbt treatment and those that have not, he found that those who got cbt experienced significant improvement in symptoms
• one limitation for cbt is that it may not be effective for everyone because there are individual differences in patients experiences with depression