CBT versus counselling for depression: it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it

This review focuses on medication, but ignores psychosexual treatment for sexual dysfunction for people with serious mental illness.

Mark Smith channels Ella Fitzgerald whilst reviewing evidence from the 2nd UK National Audit of psychological therapies, which compares CBT and generic counselling in the treatment of depression.

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Psychotherapies for depression in children and adolescents: all of equal IMPACT?

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Jasmin Wertz summarises the recently published IMPACT trial, which found that CBT, short-term psychoanalytical psychotherapy and brief psychosocial interventions (psychoeducation) were all equally effective in treating depression in children and young people.

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Psychotherapies for adult depression: the things we know we know, and those we know we don’t

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Patrick Kennedy-Williams highlights a recent opinion piece by Pim Cuijpers, which summarises what we know and what we don’t know about the efficacy of psychotherapies for adult depression.

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CBT versus psychodynamic psychotherapy for social anxiety disorder: long live the dodo or time for a change in research emphasis?

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Andrew Shepherd appraises a study of the long-term outcomes of psychodynamic therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in social anxiety disorder, which finds both therapies are efficacious in treating social anxiety disorder in the short- and long-term.

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RCT shows CBT is more effective than psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treating bulimia nervosa, but that’s only half the story

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I had actually heard about this Danish study, published recently by Poulsen et al. (2014) in the American Journal of Psychiatry, before it landed in my inbox. The findings are interesting because they highlight the debate surrounding the comparative efficacy of psychological treatments. What is most striking though, is how the study itself challenges the [read the full story…]

Psychotherapy trials should report the side effects of treatment

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If a treatment is powerful enough to have a good effect, then it’s powerful enough to have a bad effect. This is well recognised when it comes to medication, with strict regulations in place to ensure adverse outcomes are monitored and measured. By contrast, psychotherapy has never been as readily associated with the potential to [read the full story…]

Is the Dodo finally dead?

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There’s been a lot of chatter here in the woodlands about the role of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in psychosis – what do service users think of it? Can it be used in place of antipsychotics for some people? Outside of the woodlands, CBT for psychosis has also been generating a lot of attention: Does [read the full story…]

“Everyone’s a winner, all must have prizes!” but which psychotherapy for depression wins, if any?

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Previous meta-analyses in the field of depressive disorders have yielded mixed conclusions about which the most efficacious treatment is.  Within the process of any therapy, there are universal features such as; the therapeutic relationship, rationale for treatment, a patient and therapist belief in treatment, a confidential and respectful space for the patient and so on.  [read the full story…]

Are the specific techniques used by different psychotherapists likely to help people with depression?

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Non-directive supportive therapy (NDST) has been defined as “a psychological treatment in which therapists do not engage in any therapeutic strategies other than active listening and offering support, focusing on participants’ problems and concerns” (Arean et al., 2010). We know from research studies that there are many types of psychological therapy that work well in [read the full story…]