Treating depression

• Ellis Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy is also known as CBT
• The aim of REBT


  challenge irrational or dysfunctional thoughts and replace them with more rational ones. encorporates the ABC model
• procedure

  1. the first part of therapy is 'gently confrontational' to persuade the client their beliefs are irrational and causing their emotional turmoil
  2. the clients beliefs are continuously challenged
  3. clients are given homework assignments to face their irrational thoughts in everyday life
  4. the goal is full acceptance of new rational beliefs
• A - activating event
• B - belief system
• C - consequences
• D - dispute system
• E - exchange
• Ellis emphasises that it's not the activating event causing unproductive consequences, but the belief systems
• 1. logical disputing - does thinking this way make sense
  2. empirical disputing - are these beliefs consistent with reality
  3. pragmatic disputing - emphasising lack of usefulness or self defeating beliefs, how does this belief help me
• strength of CBT


  successful. march et al compared cbt to antidepressants in 300+ adolescents. after 36 weeks they found cbt was equally as effective (81% improvement)
• weakness of cbt


  not successful for everyone. have to have motivation, blames the patient. also learning difficulties may affect treatment. the clients needs must be considered before course of treatment is decided
• weakness of cbt - high relapse


  2017 research assessed 400 clients every month for a year following cbt course. within 6 months, 42% had relapsed into depression. CBT isnt a lifelong fix