What is the place of psychological treatments in mood disorders?

Full Abstract

While psychotherapy has many applications for mood disorders, this paper focuses on those psychotherapies (cognitive behaviour therapy or CBT, and interpersonal psychotherapy or IPT) that have been manualized, extensively evaluated, and positioned as definitive therapies for unipolar depressive disorders. This paper suggests some reasons as to why their role and utility remain unclear. First, despite many randomized controlled efficacy studies, differentiation from other psychotherapies or control interventions appears to occur only when the actual control treatment possesses few therapeutic ingredients. Second, their testing as if they have universal application for non-specific diagnostic entities (e.g. major depression), in trials where there is a high rate of non-specific responsivity to intervention, has limited our capacity to identify the circumstances in which such treatments have specific benefits. Thus, many of the limitations to the knowledge base more reflect limitations reflecting the current evaluation of all antidepressant therapies rather than being unique to the psychotherapies. This paper argues for a change in the paradigms for evaluating the psychotherapies, and argues for a 'horses for courses' approach for conceptualizing the roles of the psychotherapies in managing mood disorders, rather than any model assuming their universal application.

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Author information

Author/s: Parker, Gordon (G);

Affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Black Dog Institute. g.parker(-atsign-)unsw.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Review

Journal: The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology / official scientific journal of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum (CINP) (Int J Neuropsychopharmacol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Feb; vol 10 (issue 1) : pp 137-45

Dates: Created 2007/01/18; Completed 2007/03/30; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 16787555, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use
Cognitive Therapy
Combined Modality Therapy
Depressive Disorder - drug therapy; psychology; therapy
Humans
Interpersonal Relations

Interpersonal Relations
Mood Disorders - therapy
Psychotherapy, Group
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic - methods
Research Design
Treatment Outcome

Associated Chemicals: Antidepressive Agents (0)

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