Effectiveness of Psychotherapy in Treating Major Depression

According to the Archives of General Psychiatry, approximately 14.8 million American adults suffer from the major depressive disorder. Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression than men. Although major depression can be life-threatening when left untreated, it responds quickly to treatments such as psychotherapy. Yet, according to a report from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, almost 75 percent of patients who suffer from the major depression never seek help.

Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

Patients who receive psychotherapy seem to be better off than controls who do not receive any treatment. P. Cuijpers, PhD.D., from the Department of Clinical Psychology in Amsterdam, conducted a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies examining the effects of psychological treatments on depression. He included 7 studies with over 700 subjects, and found that psychotherapy decreased depression symptoms in most subjects and may even have prevented the onset of a major depression.

Psychotherapy Without Medication

Medication or psychotherapy alone has been found effective in treating mild depression but when the depression is more serious a combination of therapy and medication is needed. For example, Dr. Reynolds CF from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine studied in 116 elderly patients with a major depression what the risk for recurrence of depression would be in a period of two years if the patient received only psychotherapy or antidepressants and psychotherapy. He concluded that the risk for recurrence of depression was much higher among patients who did not receive antidepressants. This study was published in March issue of the “New England Journal of Medicine” in 2006.

What Kind of Psychotherapy is Most Effective?

It may be hard for a patient to choose which therapy to attend when the options seem to be endless. Therapies make different kind of assumptions about what is causing depression and which are the optimal ways to treat it. Psychodynamic theories tend to focus on early childhood memories. Behavioral theories believe that a depressed person acts in a way that only maintains his depression. He might, for example, avoid people and tend to feel depressed because he is lonely. Cognitive theories emphasize maladaptive thinking processes (Res 4). Are all of these therapies equally effective in treating depression? Among the first meta-analytic studies, i.e., a study that analyzes a large number of other studies was run at the Johns Hopkins University by Dr. ML Smith. It was published in 1980 by Johns Hopkins University Press. Based on hundreds of treatment outcome and comparative treatment studies, he found out that cognitive and cognitive-behavioral therapies had the best results, followed by behavioral and psychodynamic treatments, and finally humanistic therapies.

Keywords

·    depression psychotherapy effectivenes

·    depression treatment

·    major depression

Reference

·    “Archives of General Psychiatry”; Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of Twelve-month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R).; Kessler, Chiu, Demler; vol. 6, 617-627, 2005

·    “Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica”; Psychological treatments of subthreshold depression: a meta-analytic review; Cuijpers P; Jun 2007.

·    “New England Journal of Medicine”; Maintenance treatment of major depression in old age; Reynolds CF; 2006.

·    “Journal of the American Medical Association” Journal; Fluoxetine, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and their combination for adolescents with depression: Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS) randomized controlled trial.; 2004.

·    “American Psychologist”; Howard; 1986.

Resource

·    National Institute of Mental Health: Depression[http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression/complete-index.shtml]

·    Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance: Depression[http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_depression_overview]

·    “The benefits of psychotherapy”; Smith, M. L.; Baltimore: 1980.

·    “Six Key Approaches to Counseling and Therapy”; Nelson-Jones R; London: 2000.