Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Treatments for Depression
- Electroconvulsive Therapy
- How does
ECT work?
- increase the rates of serotonin
- stimulates / generates
improvements in
depressive symptoms
- improves blood flow in the brain
- restores the brain's ability to
regulate mood by enhancing the
transmission of neurotransmitters
- Side effects
- memory loss
- cardiovascular
changes
- headaches
- Effectiveness of ECT
for depression
- Sackheim (1989) - real ECT is significantly
more effective than placebo ECT
- however bilateral was more
effective than unilateral
- Sackheim - ECT is
more effective than
anti-depressant drugs
- however, the use of medication
following ECT can prevent relapse
- ECT is more effective
in the short term
treatment of depression
- however, lacks reliability as the
trials haven't been compared
with newer anti-depressants
- doesn't cure the potential
cause, only the symptoms
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
- aim - train clients to distance themselves from
things; distinguish fact from fiction; see things in
proportion; not to see things in such extreme terms
- Thought catching
- individuals are taught how to
see the link between their
thoughts and the way they feel
- they might be asked to
record any emotion-arousing
events, the automatic
'negative' thoughts
associated with these events
and then their 'realistic'
thoughts that might challenge
these negative thoughts
- by challenging the dysfunctional thoughts and replacing
them with more constructive ones, clients are encouraged to
try out new ways of thinking, and in turn, behaving
- Behavioural activation
- based on the common-sense
idea that being active leads to
rewards that act as an
antidote to depression
- the characteristic of many depressed
people is that they no longer participate in
activities that they previously enjoyed
- in CBT, therapist and client identify
potentially pleasurable activities and
anticipate then deal with any cognitive
obstacles ( "I won't be able to do that" )
- Butler (2006) - CBT was
highly effective for
treating depression
- however, Holmes (2002) - the single
greatest study into effective treatment for
depression showed that CBT was less
effective that medication
- CBT takes full account of the patient's
thoughts, attitudes and feelings
- however, it focuses more of
treating symptoms rather than
getting to the cause of problems