Cognitive treatment to depression

• CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• CBT - a combination of cognitive therapy, changing maladaptive thoughts and beliefs
• Cognitive treatment for depression is based on the assumptions that faulty thinking make a person more vulnerable to depression.
• CBT identifies irrational and negative thoughts, leading to depression. It then aims to replace these negative thoughts with more positive and rational ones.
• Components to CBT:

  Initial Assessment

  Goal Setting

  Identifying negative thoughts

  Homework
• Two types of CBT:

  Beck - CBT

  Ellis - REBT
• CBT - therapists challenge irrational thoughts and discuss evidence against them. Then the patient is given homework and encouraged to test the validity of their negative thoughts.
• REBT - The therapist disputes and argues against patient’s irrational beliefs, replacing them with more effective beliefs and attitudes.
• REBT Empirical dispute - a therapist asks for evidence for a person’s thoughts
• CBT Homework - the patient identifies their own irrational beliefs and then proves them wrong.
• AO3. A strength of CBT is that research evidence has shown its effectiveness in treating depression. March et al found that CBT was as effective as antidepressants. A group of adolescents with depression were given either CBT, antidepressants or a combination of both. After 36 weeks, 81% of the CBT group improved and 81% of the antidepressant group improved. In the combined group, 86% improved. This shows that CBT can help, and that a combination of both treatments may be more effective.
• AO3. A limitation to CBT is that it requires motivation. Patients with severe depression may not benefit from CBT as a symptom of depression is being unmotivated, therefore they may not engage with their sessions or homework. Other treatments such as antidepressants may be more effective as they do not require any motivation. This is a problem for CBT as it cannot be used as a sole treatment method.
• AO3. A limitation to CBT that it focuses only on cognitions as the cause of depression. It can be critiqued for not taking into account factors like the patient's situation. For example, a patient who is suffering from domestic abuse does not need to change irrational beliefs, they need to change their situation. This means that CBT would be ineffective in treating these patients until their circumstances were changed.
• AO3. The success of CBT may not be due to techniques by Beck or Ellis. Rosenzwig argued that the relationship between the client and therapist is the most important, as having someone to talk to can be crucial for a depression patient's recovery. This means that using CBT to prove the cognitive approach may not be completely accurate.