Cognitive Psychology & Depression

Depression is a serious but treatable illness. It is not merely a sadness or the blues. Depression affects a person's ability to perform daily tasks and seriously alters a person's quality of life. While, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians, two-thirds of depression patients respond to medication only, some patients have continuing symptoms or experience relapses and need additional treatment. According to the National Institute on Mental Health, cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in treating depression.

Identification

• Cognitive behavioral therapy is a psychological treatment that addresses a person's problems by first addressing faulty thinking or thought processes, which in turn will affect a person's mood and outlook, and in turn his behavior. The therapist will first help the patient identify what thought patterns, called automatic thoughts, are negative and unreliable. Then the patient will learn to replace those automatic thoughts with more accurate and realistic positive ones.

History

• While it's a common perception that cognitive behavior therapy is a relatively new treatment, CBT actually dates back to the early 1960s, with the publication of Albert Ellis' book "Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy" and Aaron Beck's "The Self Concept in Depression." In the 1970s many psychologists began writing about cognitive aspects of depression and from that research the effectiveness of cognitive therapy fueled the growing practice of cognitive therapy in depression treatment.

Features

• In the first few weeks the therapist will help the patient deal with the faulty thinking that affects mood and behavior before launching into the behavioral process. When new thinking patterns have been set, the therapist will then lead the patient to schedule pleasurable activities that will provide positive reinforcement. This will help remedy the inertia a depression patient typically experiences from depression. The positive experience will help the patient lessen negative thought patterns, and make more positive behavioral changes as a result.

Time Frame

• Cognitive therapy is different than other forms of therapy in that it is not set up as an open-ended process but rather there are concrete goals to be met, which are set by therapist and patient together. However a general time table would be for a patient to see the therapist weekly, unless in crisis, and for the patient to see significant improvement in six to 10 sessions, or possibly more like 20 if the depression is deep or resistant.

Benefits

• The main benefit of cognitive therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy is that it is quite effective in the treatment of depression including treatment resistant depression. For patients who cannot or would prefer not take medications, cognitive therapy is a good option. Additionally, therapy does not have the physical side effects risks that medication can involve.