AO3 Evaluations - Cognitive Therapies for
Depression
A strength of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is that it is effective,
and there is a lot of evidence to support this. For example, a study by
March et al. in 2007 compared the effects of CBT with antidepressant
drugs, and a combination of the 2 in 327 adolescents with a significant
diagnosis of depression. After 36 weeks, they found that both the
antidepressants group and the CBT plus antidepressants group had
significantly improved. CBT then emerged just as effective as medication,
and also helpful alongside medication. This suggests that there is a good
case for making CBT the first choice of treatment in public health care
systems like the NHS.
A limitation of CBT is that it may not work for the most severe cases.
Depression can become so severe that patients cannot motivate
themselves to engage with the hard cognitive work of this form of therapy.
They may not be able to pay attention to what is happening within a
session. Where this is the case, it is possible to treat patients with an
antidepressant and then continue to commence CBT when they are
feeling more alert and motivated. Although it is possible to work around
this by the use of medication, this is a limitation because it means CBT
cannot be used as the sole treatment for all cases of depression.
Another limitation of CBT is that its success may only be due to the
therapist-patient relationship. In 1936, Rosenzweig suggested that the
differences between different methods of psychotherapy, such as CBT
and systematic desensitisation, is actually fairly small. All psychotherapies
share on important factor - the therapist-patient relationship. It may be
the quality of this relationship that determines the success, rather than
any particular technique that is used. Many comparative views also find
very small differences, which supports the view that simply having an
opportunity to talk to someone who will listen could be what matters most.
This is a limitation, as it shows that the therapy itself may not be as
effective as we may think.
Depression
A strength of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is that it is effective,
and there is a lot of evidence to support this. For example, a study by
March et al. in 2007 compared the effects of CBT with antidepressant
drugs, and a combination of the 2 in 327 adolescents with a significant
diagnosis of depression. After 36 weeks, they found that both the
antidepressants group and the CBT plus antidepressants group had
significantly improved. CBT then emerged just as effective as medication,
and also helpful alongside medication. This suggests that there is a good
case for making CBT the first choice of treatment in public health care
systems like the NHS.
A limitation of CBT is that it may not work for the most severe cases.
Depression can become so severe that patients cannot motivate
themselves to engage with the hard cognitive work of this form of therapy.
They may not be able to pay attention to what is happening within a
session. Where this is the case, it is possible to treat patients with an
antidepressant and then continue to commence CBT when they are
feeling more alert and motivated. Although it is possible to work around
this by the use of medication, this is a limitation because it means CBT
cannot be used as the sole treatment for all cases of depression.
Another limitation of CBT is that its success may only be due to the
therapist-patient relationship. In 1936, Rosenzweig suggested that the
differences between different methods of psychotherapy, such as CBT
and systematic desensitisation, is actually fairly small. All psychotherapies
share on important factor - the therapist-patient relationship. It may be
the quality of this relationship that determines the success, rather than
any particular technique that is used. Many comparative views also find
very small differences, which supports the view that simply having an
opportunity to talk to someone who will listen could be what matters most.
This is a limitation, as it shows that the therapy itself may not be as
effective as we may think.
