Researchers Find The Best Treatment Method For Depressed
Do you know what the most effective therapeutic method for people with depression is? Some people with depression may be relieved by therapists or prescription drugs, but one study suggests that questions may be key.
This study, conducted at Ohio State University, is the first to show that depressed patients experience significant relief of their symptoms when their therapists use a method called Socratic Hearing. The study was published in the journal Behavior Research and Therapy.
Socratic hearing and cognitive therapy
Socratic Hearing is a series of guided questions in which the therapist urges the patient to consider new perspectives about himself and his place in the world.
“People with depression can be caught in a negative way of thinking, ” said Justin Braun, co-author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at Ohio State University.
“The Socratic Hearing Method helps patients examine the validity of their negative thoughts and gain a broader, more realistic perspective.”
The cognitive therapy method of treating depression maintains that people suffer from depression because of their interpretation of events, and not because of the events themselves. During therapy, the patient is expected to be flexible in attributing sentences and finding more functional and adaptable interpretations of these interpretations.
In this way , the therapy not only reduces depression, but also protects against future depressive episodes.
“Many studies have focused on how the patient-therapist relationship can promote a positive therapeutic response,” said study co-author Daniel Strunk, an associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
“We found that Socratic hearing was predictive in the relief of the symptoms mentioned above and beyond the therapeutic relationship – the variable examined in previous studies.”
The reasons why Socratic questioning is so effective
The study included 55 depressed people in a 16-week course of cognitive therapy for depression at Ohio State University. Patients filled out a form at the start of each session. The aim of this form was to measure the depressive symptoms.
The researchers analyzed video recordings of the first three sessions with each patient and estimated the frequency with which the therapist used Socratic interrogation techniques.
The researchers found that the meetings where the therapists used more Socratic interrogation produced greater relief of the depressive symptoms in the patients.
“Patients learn a process of asking questions and being skeptical of their own negative thoughts,” Braun said. “When they do, they tend to see a significant reduction in their depressive symptoms.”
For example, a depressed patient may tell his or her therapist that he or she is completely unsuccessful and that his or her life is not worth living because his or her marriage ended in divorce. A therapist can ask a series of Socratic questions to challenge the patient’s beliefs about the situation.
For example, researchers suggest the following questions:
- Do you think that everyone who has experienced a divorce has failed?
- Can you imagine someone for whom this is not true?
- How do you think a divorce can make a person fail?
- What evidence is there that you succeeded in any aspect of your relationship; evidence that can argue against it being defined as a “total failure”?
“The goal is to help patients learn how to use the same type of questions for themselves,” Strunk said.
“We believe that one of the reasons why cognitive therapy has such lasting, positive effects is that patients learn to challenge their negative thoughts and continue even after treatment has ended.”
Strunk also says that depressed patients “learn that they may lack information that contradicts their negative thoughts”.
The researchers continue their research with new patients to treat clinical depression. One of the goals of the new studies is to characterize the patients so that the use of Socratic hearing can be more effective.
