Cognitive behavioural therapy, an empirically validated treatment for Major Depressive Disorder

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – is concerned with helping people form realistic expectations and challenging negative assumptions that have been accepted too readily. Work is given to service users so they can test elements of this intervention themselves between sessions, practice their skills and test out conclusions in their real life situations. This model of intervention is also mixed with client centred counselling, which operates on the thinking that people tend to move towards healing on their own especially if the counsellor;

Globally, major depressive disorder (MDD) is among the top five public health concerns today (Cuijpers et al., 2011; Jakobsen, Hansen, Simonsen, & Gluud, 2011; Hees, Rotter, Ellermann, & Evers, 2013). Moreover, almost 20% of patients with depression engage in self-harming behaviors, including suicidal attempts (Gamble et al., 2013; Jakobsen et al., 2011). Not only is the prevalence of depression alarming, but costly to the health care system (Cuijpers et al., 2011; Cuijpers et al., 2014; Hees et al., 2013; Jakobsen et al., 2011). The use of antidepressants is the standard for initial treatment, but may be limiting in preventing relapse (Cuijpers et al., 2014; Jakobsen et al., 2011). Therefore, the inclusion of non-pharmacological interventions may be necessary to improve treatment outcomes (Cuijpers et al., 2011; Dekker et al., 2013; Jakobsen et al., 2011). Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) are the two primary psychotherapeutic interventions recommended in the treatment of depression. In this paper, I will discuss the difference between CBT and IPT, compare the effectiveness between both therapies, explore their efficacy as an adjunct treatment with antidepressant medications, and summarize the treatment guidelines for depression.

Cognitive behavioral therapy differs in several respects from more traditional forms of therapy. It focuses on two specific elements: cognitive restructuring and behavioral activation. The client and therapist work together in cognitive restructuring with the goal to restructure thinking patterns. In behavioral activation, the client overcomes barriers to participating in activities. The main focus is on the present and on specific problems. cognitive behavioral therapy is a goal oriented and educational therapy, because goals for both the short and longer term are identified and it teaches the client to modify mood en behavior. The client has therefore an active role in learning e.g. coping skills. Multiple strategies are used in cognitive behavioral therapy, like imagenary, role

My role as the clinician is quite important. The primary task is to engage the client in identifying cognitive errors, refuting them, and replacing them with more adaptive thoughts. A sound therapeutic relationship is necessary for effective therapy, but not the focus of the therapy. Many forms of other counseling believe that the main reason people get better in therapy is because of the positive relationship between the therapist and client. Cognitive-behavioral therapists believe it is important to have a good, trusting relationship, but I know that is not nearly enough. We believe that the clients change because they learn how to think differently and they act on that learning. Therefore, CBT tries and focuses on teaching rational self-counseling skills. CBT is the teamwork that exists between the therapist and the client. This form of therapy is used to seek ways of learning what their clients want out of life and then helping their clients achieve those goals. The therapist's role is to listen, teach, and encourage, while the client's roles is to express concerns, learn, and implement that learning (Pucci1).

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that aims to help a person manage their problems by changing how they think and act. It is a problem solving approach which recognizes that clients have a behavioral

Cognitive-behavioural theory can be used on a one to one basis or in a group setting. It is said that in order for cognitive-behavioural therapy to be effective, the client

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is among the most extensively tested psychotherapies for depression. Many studies have confirmed the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as a treatment for depression. This paper will provide background information about the intervention, address the target population, and describe program structure and key components. It will also provide examples of program implementation, challenges/barriers to implementing the practice, address how the practice supports recovery from a serious mental illness standpoint and provide a summary. Although there are several types of therapy available to treat depression and other mood disorders, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) has been one of the most widely

The dynamics of the client-therapist relationship in cognitive therapy is a collaborative effort. Cognitive therapists elicit patient’s goals at the beginning of treatment. They explain their treatment plan and interventions to help patients understand how they will be able to reach their goals and feel better. At every session, they elicit and help patients solve problems that are of greatest distress. They do so through a structure that seeks to maximize efficiency, learning, and therapeutic change (Robert & Watkins, 2009). Important parts of each session include checking the client’s mood, a connection between sessions, setting an agenda, discussing specific problems and teaching skills in the context of solving these problems, setting of self-help assignments, summary, and feedback (Robert & Watkins, 2009). The status that CBT has with insurers and funding agencies is a result of concrete and measurable goals, goal-focused processes and clear outcomes-based evaluations/results. Therapy is typically conducted in an outpatient setting by trained therapist in cognitive behavioral techniques. Treatment is relatively short in comparison to some other forms of psychotherapy, usually lasting no longer than 16 weeks.

When treating clients who suffer from major depressive disorder, psychotherapist focus primarily on the aspects of cognitive

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has been described as a ‘sticking plaster ' for the problems that people may bring to counselling (Observer, 19/02/06). With reference to the literature, critically evaluate the arguments for and against this view.

Does cognitive-behavioral therapy work just as well as antidepressants when treating depression? How we perceive our depression is what helps to determine the type of treatment necessary. Antidepressants treat the common symptoms of depression rather than the condition while therapy helps change the thought process so the disease is cured in the end. Many studies are done to provide necessary information to what the answer to this question should be. The following articles provided studies that explained the effects of treatment with medication, with therapy, or a combination of both.

Treatments using anti-depressants is well documented, but there are very few studies documenting only the use of psychotherapy. However, in one study done using the Cognitive–behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) as a maintenance treatment, the overall findings show that psychotherapy in itself can be successful. “ There were 82 patients who were treated with CBASP long term. Patients were chosen at random to reduce their treatment to monthly or to an observational status. The patients, only treated monthly with CBASP, showed a smaller amount of reoccurring symptoms then the patients in the observational status. These findings support the use of only CBASP as a maintenance treatment for depression.” (Klein, 2004)

In this article the authors used data from 66 participants between the ages of 21-65 years-of-age who were suffering from major depressive symptoms only. They participated in a comparative treatment study where they received 16 sessions once a week of either CBT or PET. In the study 13 masters/doctorial candidates and 2 psychologists with 1-15 years of experience administered the therapy. Eight implemented the CBT focusing on cognitive schemas to facilitate change by using various homework sheets such as thought records and mood schedules. While the other seven implemented PET, which focused on attitudes to facilitate change. They used various treatment tasks to resolve cognitive-effective problems.

Argumentative thesis: Although many people assume medications such as antidepressants are the only way to treat patients with depression, meditation is a better choice of treatment as it prevents relapse in patients that are recurringly depressed, is accepted by a large portion of patients that are typically unwilling to take medication to treat their depression, and rebuilds brain structures affected by the mental illness,