Cognitive Therapy for Depression

Floyd, Mark, Forrest Scogin, Nancy L. McKendree-Smith, Donna L. Floyd and Paul D. Rokke, Cognitive Therapy for Depression A Comparison of Individual Psychotherapy and Bibliotherapy for Depressed Older Adults , Behavior Modification 28 (2004) 297-318... 

Blackburn, I. M. and Davidson, K. (1990). Cognitive Therapy for Depression and Anxiety. Edinburgh, UK Blackwell. 

Fennell, M. J. V. and Teasdale, J. D. (1987). Cognitive therapy for depression Individual differences and the process of change. Cognitive Therapy and Research 11 253-71. 

Simons, A. D. et al. (1985). Predicting response to cognitive therapy for depression The role of learned resourcefulness. Cognitive Therapy and Research 9 79-89. Sinatra, J. D. (2000). Relaxation training as a holistic nursing intervention. Holistic... 

In 1976, Aaron Beck, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a cognitive theory of emotions and emotional disorders - a theory that was to become the foundation for cognitive behavioural therapy for depression. According to Beck, fear is produced by the anticipation of harm, joy by the expectancy of positive events, and sadness by the sense that something important has for ever been lost. As a consequence, overcoming fear and depression requires changing the beliefs that have produced them. 

Wampold, Bruce E., Takuya Minami, Thomas W. Baskin and Sandra Callen Tierney, A Meta-(Re)Analysis of the Effects of Cognitive Therapy Versus Other Therapies for Depression Journal of Affective Disorders 68 (2002) 159-65... 

Moore, R. and Garland, A. (2003). Cognitive Therapy for Chronic and Persistent Depression. Chichester, UK Wiley. 

Silvana Grandi, Six-Year Outcome of Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Prevention of Recurrent Depression , AmericanJournal ofPsychiatry 161 (2004) 1872-76... 

The efficacy of psychotherapy and antidepressants is considered to be additive. Psychotherapy alone is not recommended for the acute treatment of patients with severe and/or psychotic major depressive disorders. For uncomplicated nonchronic major depressive disorder, combined treatment may provide no unique advantage. Cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy appear to be equal in efficacy. 

The most commonly used therapies for anxiety and depression are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the more recently developed serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). SSRIs, which constitute 60% of the worldwide antidepressant and antianxiety market, are frequently associated with sexual dysfunction, appetite disturbances and sleep disorders. Because SSRIs and SNRIs increase 5-HT levels in the brain, they can indirectly stimulate all 14 serotonergic receptor subtypes [2,3], some of which are believed to lead to adverse side effects associated with these drugs. Common drugs for short-term relief of GAD are benzodiazepines. These sedating agents are controlled substances with addictive properties and can be lethal when used in combination with alcohol. The use of benzodiazepines is associated with addiction, dependency and cognitive impairment. 

Repetitive TMS, unlike electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), uses sub-convulsive stimuli to treat depression. Compared to ECT, TMS has a potential to target specific brain regions and to stimulate brain areas thought to be primarily involved in depression while sparing areas like the hippocampus, thereby reducing the probability of cognitive side effects. However, the therapeutic efficacy of TMS as a treatment for depression is, unlike ECT, modest. Most TMS studies use high-frequency, fast stimulation (> 10 Hz) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area which has been... 

Hollon SD, DeRubeis RJ, Evans MD, et al. Cognitive-therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression singly and in combination. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1992 49 774-781. 

Thase ME, Friedman ES, Berman SR, et al. Is cognitive behavior just a nonspecific intervention for depression A retrospective comparison of consecutive cohorts treated with cognitive behavior therapy or supportive counseling and pill placebo. J Aifect Disord 2000 57 63-71. 

DeRubeis RJ, Gelfand LA, Tang TZ, et al. Medications versus cognitive behavior therapy for severely depressed outpatients mega-analysis of four randomized comparisons. Am J Psychiatry 1999 156 1007-1013. 

In Cognitive Therapy and Its Disorders (1976) New American Library, Aaron T. Beck, describes a system of psychotherapy that can improve the quality of a patient s beliefs by substituting metre favourable correct beliefs for depressing wrong beliefs. Substituting still more favourable incorrect beliefs would require a different procedure. 

Taking depression as an example, an extensive evidence base exists for the efficacy of several forms of psychotherapy. These include cognitive therapy (in which individuals identify faulty views and negative automatic thoughts and attempt to replace them with ways of thinking less likely to lead to depression), interpersonal therapy (which focuses on relationships, roles and losses), brief dynamic psychotherapy (a time-limited version of traditional psychoanalysis) and cognitive analytical therapy (another well structured time-limited therapy which combines the best points of cognihve therapy and traditional analysis). 

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