Category: Depression

The depression therapy is quicker and more effective than CBT.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is often seen as the gold standard for treating depression.

However, a new study has found that ‘metacognitive therapy’ has a better outcome and is quicker.

Three-quarters of patients with depression recovered after being given metacognitive therapy in comparison to only half given CBT.

Metacognitive therapy involves targeting basic thinking processes.

It focuses on how people think, in contrast to CBT which concentrates on the content of thoughts.

A simple example of metacognition is realising one is prone to repetitive thinking of depressive thoughts — what psychologists call rumination.

Metacognitive therapy is about learning to deal with rumination more effectively.

One strategy is learning that thoughts are just thoughts and do not reflect reality.

Like any thoughts, they can be allowed to float away without causing distress.

Professor Adrian Wells, the study’s author, said:

“CBT has been the therapy of choice for many years in treating patients with major depression — with varying degrees of success.

We don’t know for sure why MCT might be more effective, but it is a method that has a solid scientific basis, grounded in the latest cognitive psychology.

We’re very excited about the results.

The focus of the two treatments is different: MCT aims to change basic mental regulation processes that have become biased, whilst CBT aims to modify thought content and is based much more on clinical observation.”

The study included 174 people with major depression, 85 of whom received metacognitive therapy and 89 received CBT.

Six months after the therapy, 74 percent of patients receiving metacognitive therapy had recovered, compared with just 52 percent of those receiving CBT.

Metacognitive therapy was also quicker, taking an average of 5.5 sessions compared to 6.7 for CBT.

Professor Wells, who co-developed the therapy, thinks it has a bright future:

“We think MCT may cost less than CBT but no formal analyses have been run on this to date.

However MCT appears to give results more quickly so fewer sessions may be required.

We do think MCT may be easier to use because it has a core set of principles that can be applied to many types of disorders and does not depend on reality-testing of different negative thoughts.

Instead it helps patients to reduce the process of repetitive negative thinking and worrying.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology (Wells, 2020).

Unfortunately, many people do little to help those with depression.

Many people are reluctant to reach out and help the depressed, new online research underlines.

The study of Facebook examined how friends reacted to posts about depression.

The results revealed that friends were unlikely to recommend getting help, although they provided some minimal support by liking the post or sending motivation messages.

In fact, none of the 33 people participating in the study, many of whom were depressed, were told to get professional help by friends.

Dr Scottye Cash, the study’s first author, said:

“It makes me concerned that none of the Facebook friends of students in this study were proactive in helping their friend get help.

We need to figure out why.”

The study focused on 33 students who had reached out on Facebook for help when depressed.

Half of the people in the study were moderately or severely depressed and one-third were experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Dr Cash said:

“There’s no doubt that many of the students in our study needed mental health help.”

Depressed students typically said they had had ‘the worst day’ or described feeling very alone.

Some used song lyrics or emojis to convey their emotions.

However, they did not generally use the word ‘depression’, Dr Cash said:

“They didn’t use words like ‘depressed’ in their Facebook posts

It may be because of the stigma around mental illness.

Or maybe they didn’t know that their symptoms indicated that they were depressed.”

Some friends generally reacted in a supportive way, while others asked what was wrong.

Dr Cash is sympathetic with friends who did not pick up the signals:

“For the friends reading these posts, they often have to read between the lines since few people came right out and said they were depressed.

Many people used quotes and song lyrics to talk about how they’re feeling, so their friends really had to decode what they were saying.”

Recognising the signs of depression is difficult for people, said Dr Cash:

“Both Facebook and colleges and universities could do more to give these students information about resources, mental health support and how to recognize the signs of depression and anxiety.

We need to increase mental health literacy and decrease mental health stigma.”

Here are ten common symptoms of depression.

The study was published in the JMIR Research Protocols (Cash et al., 2019).