Behavioural and Cognitive Treatment Interventions in Depression: An analysis of the Evidence Base

Abstract

Depression has been determined to be the leading cause of disability and the 4th leading contributor to the global burden of disease and is characterized by relapse, recurrence and chronicity (WHO, 2007). A sys-tematic review of several meta-analyses on treatment outcome supports the view that Cognitive Behav-ioural Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment (Butler et al., 2006). However, CBT is not a single inter-vention, but has evolved from various theoretical perspectives, resulting in different theoretically congru-ent treatment techniques for depression. It is therefore important to understand which treatment ap-proaches may be the most effective. This review provides an analysis of the evidence base comparing CBT with Behavioural Activation (Martell et al., 2010). 3rd wave approaches and the Six Cycles Mainte-nance & Treatment Model (Moorey, 2010) are presented in the context of how they can add to the effec-tive treatment of depression.