Depression

• Depression: A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels.
• Behavioural: The ways in which people act.
• Emotional: Related to a persons feelings or mood.
• Cognitive: Refers to the process of knowing, thinking, reasoning, remembering and believing.
• DSM-5 categories for depression:

  • Major depressive disorder- severe but short term.
  • Persistent depressive disorder- long term depression.
  • Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder- Childhood temper tantrums.
  • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder- disruption to mood prior or during menstruation.
• Three behavioural characteristics of depression:

  1. Activity levels
  2. Disruption to sleep or eating behaviour
  3. Aggression or self-harm
• Activity levels (Behavioural): People with depression have lower energy levels which leads to them pulling out of things such as work, education and social life. They may not even get out of bed.
• Disruption to sleep or eating behaviour (Behavioural): A person ay experience reduced sleep (insomnia) or and increased need for sleep (hypersomnia). Appetite or eating may also increase or decrease.
• Aggression or self-harm (Behavioural): People with depression may be irritable, angry or aggressive. It can often lead to self-harm and suicide attempts.
• Three emotional characteristics of depression:

  1. Lowered mood
  2. Anger
  3. Lower self-esteem
• Lowered mood (Emotional): People with depression will see themselves as worthless and empty, more than just sad.
• Anger (Emotional): People with depression may frequently experience anger aimed at others or themselves. This emotion can lead to aggressive behaviour.
• Lowered self-esteem (Emotional): People with depression are more likely to have a negative image of themselves and may even experience self loathing.
• Three cognitive characteristics of depression:

  1. Poor concentration
  2. Attending to and dwelling on the negative
  3. Absolute thinking
• Poor concentration (Cognitive): People with depression may be less likely to be able to stick to a certain task.
• Attending and dwelling on the negative (Cognitive): The tendency of people with depression to focus on the negative aspects of a situation, glass half empty.
• Absolute thinking (Cognitive): When depressed a person is more likely to think in black-and-white thoughts. They see whole situations as fully bad or fully good.
• Explaining depression- Beck

  • Faulty information processing: When depressed people tend to the negative aspects of the situation.
  • Negative self-schema: A self-schema is the package of ideas that a person has about themselves, if it's negative it means they have a negative self-image.
• Negative triad (Beck):

  • Negative thoughts about yourself.
  • Negative thoughts about the future.
  • Negative thoughts about the world.
• Ellis- Explanation for depression:

  • Good mental health is a result of rational thoughts, if they are depressed their thoughts may be irrational.
• ABC model- Ellis:

  A= Activating event

  B= Beliefs (rational or irrational)

  C= Consequence (It could trigger depression)
• Beck - Evaluation (Strength):

  Research support: Cognitive vulnerability has been proven to lead to depression for example Cohen tracked the cognitive vulnerability of teens and found that depression did have a link.
• Beck - Evaluation (Strength):

  Real-world application: His research has been used for depression screenings and treatment. It can be applied in cognitive behaviour therapy. This understanding is very useful in treatment.
• Ellis - Evaluation (Strength):

  Real-world application: REBT was created to help battle the irrational beliefs given by a depressed person, this has helped greatly in the treatment of depressed people.
• Ellis - Evaluation (Limitation):

  Reactive and endogenous depression: The ABC model only explains reactive depression not endogenous depression. It's only a partial explination for depression.
• Cognitive behaviour therapy: A method of treating mental disorderes based on cognitive and behavioural techniques. The cognitive focuses on challenging thoughts people have. It also includes behavioural techniques such as relaxation and distraction.
• Ellis' rational emotive bahaviour therapy: Extends the ABC model to include ABCDE. D stands for dispute and E stands for effect. It intends to challenge the irrational thoughts of the person and make them think about the activating event.
• Behavioural activation: A way to help depressed people decrease their isolation and avoidance.
• Evaluation for CBT (Strength):

  Evidence for effectiveness: Large bods of evidence of support. Many case studies show that CBT is very useful and it is seen as the first choice of treatment for many people.
• Evaluation for CBT (Limitation):

  Suitability for diverse clients: Lacks effectiveness for severe cases. It may be so severe that the client may not want to work on CBT meaning it may only be good for a certain spectrum of people.

  Counterpoint: New research shows that it may be more effective than once thought.
• Evaluation for CBT (Limitation):

  Relapse rates: The long term effects may not be as strong a there is evidence that suggests that it may not work for people who have long term depression therefore it is constantly needed as is not just a treatment but an everyday thing.