Recent Research Showing Cbt Is Not As Effective As It Used To Be For Treating Depression

[Queen Boudica]

Interesting discussion....
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...ut-of-favour-oliver-burkeman?CMP=share_btn_fb

 

[ms spock]

That is interesting @Lizio.

 

[ground crew]

Interesting indeed! I had cbt at the va. It involved writing about the event and critiquing it for distortions. It was not only a once a week meeting, it was 6 days of writing and thinking about it for 10 min or so. Is that generally what cbt is? I have had therapy without home work before that and it was called cbt but it was not effective.

 

[ms spock]

Have you read David Burns book "Feeling Good" @ground crew? I tried to read the Sarah Edelman book for years and it never worked for me. I read David Burns' book and it really helped a lot.

 

[Chava]

Thanks for posting. Good to hear in some ways because it is narrow-sighted to keep on thinking this is "IT" for therapy. Many mindfulness and yoga therapies have shown help for depression. I always think of CBT as helpful for things like general anxiety or obsessive patterns....or also early eating disorder treatment when you can challenge some of the distorted thinking and also hook the patient up with a nutritionist.

But it has not worked for me for trauma (or years later eating disorder because starving was just my way of self-regulation...fully aware I was too skinny). And if someone has depression tied to trauma (lots of us), then that might also involve a different course.

CBT it useful. It's a great therapy for many things. But it's important to know it's the "THE" therapy. My therapist has Dance Movement Therapy certification, movement analysis, Somatic Experiencing, Mindell Process Werk, Masters in child and family therapy....a lot of modalities that work very well together for treating any age, and particularly trauma. But the research goes into pharmaceuticals more than treatments. A tool kit of combined somatic approaches is a real blessing for complex trauma sufferers. CBT just made me feel helpless and stupid. Because it wasn't about my thoughts. The trauma was driving my thoughts. I knew I was nuts, but body-focused trauma therapy helped me feel like I'm "okay",...not broken, there is a way out..

 

[ground crew]

Yes, ms Spock! That is a great book. I like the way it suggests daily goals and logs as a measure of progress to combat depression. It makes good sense. Not all cbt is the REAL cbt.

I have not tread into somatic types of therapy, but I have heard it is great!

 

[Chava]

@ground crew like CBT, somatic therapies also aren't for everyone. But if SE or trauma-focused, it's very helpful to focus on the body and balancing out the nervous system regulation vs just sitting and talking (I just never did well with that). Right now in the major clinics around me, the only options are talk therapy, primarily CBT., with maybe one person doing some EMDR. I have to travel quite a ways to see my therapist but it is worth it because I finally found the right therapist for my stuff. But I bet in 10-15 years we'll see more body psychotherapy as options in the regular clinics...and largely those people will worth with trauma people, children, and perhaps those in chronic pain (CBT for chronic pain is also sort of a crapshoot...I bypassed that option)

 

[falling_wave]

Interesting. I've always felt like cbt is a good starting therapy or integrated therapy but not stand alone it's too surface based. @ground crew it sounds like you did trauma focused cbt. It's a little different than traditional cbt which is mainly talk therapy. It identifies negative or irrational thought patterns and builds awareness about how to notice and change them in the moment.

 

[Chava]

I'll admit I've never done trauma-focused CBT. But I would think even with that, having some body-based stuff, like yoga or mindfulness with a trusted teacher. Talk is cheap, so they say. But really so much can't be verbalized, but is continually expressed through our bodies and nervous systms.

 

[ms spock]

it sounds like you did trauma focused cbt. It's a little different than traditional cbt which is mainly talk therapy.

What is the difference @falling_wave? I didn't realise that there was trauma focussed CBT? How is that different from traditional CBT?

 

[falling_wave]

@Ms Spock tf-cbt is different from traditional cbt because it is centered around the trauma. The first research is with children and adolescents but it's used with adults now too. The beginning is about emotional regulation and relaxation skills and then over time you write a trauma narrative of you experience from start to finish of what you got from it and how it effected you. Traditional cbt is incorporated a lot of the time especially worksheets with thought feeling event triangles. You list what happened, the thoughts you had about it, and the emotions. Then those are discussed. The big thing about the trauma narrative with adolescents but this can be used with a significant other etc is sharing it when you are ready with the help of a T. The T usually meets we it the parent or other person beforehand to help them prepare emotionally for it and then it is like breaking down the secrets and a kind of catharsis. Then after that it is more about here and now coping and psycho education to deal with current symptoms.

 

[ms spock]

Thank you @falling_wave. I had never heard of it before.