Mental Health

Psychotherapies for Depression

What is psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy involves the verbal interaction between a trained professional therapist and a patient with emotional or behavioral problems. Using techniques based on established psychological principles, the therapist helps the patient gain insights about himself or herself in order to change his or her maladaptive thoughts, feelings, and behavior. There are several forms of this treatment that have proven useful in helping a depressed person.

What is interpersonal psychotherapy?

This therapy is based on the theory that disturbed social and personal relationships can cause or precipitate depression. The illness, in turn, may cause more problems in the relationships. The therapist helps the patient understand his or her illness, and how depression and interpersonal conflicts are related.

What is cognitive-behavioral therapy?

This treatment approach is based on the theory that people's emotions are controlled by their views and opinions of the world. Depression results when patients constantly berate themselves, expect to fail, make inaccurate assessments of what others think of them, feel hopeless, and have a negative attitude toward the world and the future. The therapist uses various techniques of talk therapy and behavioral prescriptions to alleviate the negative thought patterns and beliefs.

Psychoanalysis and the treatment of depression:
This therapy is based on the concept that depression is the result of past conflicts which patients have pushed into their unconscious. The therapist meets three to five times a week with the patient to identify and resolve the patient's past conflicts that have given rise to depression in later years.

What is psychodynamic psychotherapy?

Based on the principles of psychoanalysis, this therapy is less intense and often is provided once or twice a week over a shorter span of time. It is based on the premise that human behavior is determined by one's past experiences, genetic endowment, and current reality. It recognizes the significant effects that emotions and unconscious motivation can have on human behavior.

How does electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) work?

ECT works by affecting the same transmitter chemicals in the brain that are affected by medications. As more effective medications have been developed, the use of ECT for the treatment of depression has decreased. However, ECT is very effective for treating patients who cannot take medications due to heart conditions, old age, or severe malnourishment, or for patients who do not respond to antidepressant medication. It can be a lifesaving treatment technique that is considered when other therapies have failed, or when a person is very likely to commit suicide.

This page was last updated on: February 5, 2008.

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