Cognitive behavioral therapy for depression

摘要

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression is one of the best researched treatments in all of medicine.1 As developed by Aaron T. Beck in the 1970s,2 CBT for depression employs the highly potent strategies of behavioral activation and the relapse-preventing interventions of belief change and cognitive restructuring. As this article discusses, CBT is also substantially more durable than medication in patients who respond to treatment. Because not all patients with depression respond to medication, and many continue to have residual symptoms that interfere with their quality of life and incur a risk for relapse, CBT can play a major role in the treatment of this significant, often deadly public health problem.