Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on May 13, 2010
New research finds that cognitive therapy is beneficial for moderate to severely depressed individuals. The approach emphasizes a change in thinking rather than a change in behavior.
Findings suggest cognitive therapists should concentrate, at least during the first few sessions, on a client’s thought patterns to help them see life events more realistically.
The study found that a concentration on changing behavior — such as having patients schedule activities to get them out of the house, and tracking how they spent their time — did not significantly predict subsequent change in depressive symptoms.
“There has been a lot of attention recently on behavioral approaches to treating severe depression, and that may lead some people to suspect that cognitive techniques are not important for more severely depressed patients,†said Daniel Strunk, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
“But our results suggest that it was the cognitive strategies that actually helped patients improve the most during the first critical weeks of cognitive-behavioral therapy.”
Read in Full:Â http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/05/13/cognitive-therapy-helps-all-types-of-depression/13782.html
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