Cognitive Therapy Successful Against Depression

[TomL]

I just came across this article regarding a clinical study showing that cognitive therapy is successful against depression

[scottkursk]

I just came across this article regarding a clinical study showing that cognitive therapy is successful against depression

Soon as I saw the title I thought of a Forbes article from a couple months ago about how many insurance plans are actually discouraging treatments that don't require drugs ranging from anxiety and depression to heartburn. Things such as depression and anxiety disorders all respond very well from cognitive therapy, that is a pretty well understood given and this just goes to add some arrows to the quiver.

Insurance plans can actually be very hesitant approving RCT or "talk therapy" since they know that giving someone a xanax (or equivalant) per day will treat (but not cure) the issue. The reason they encourage the current school of pills not treatment is that you can reasonably forecast the costs of psychiatric treatment through medication compared to that of RCT. The problem is the feeling that RCT can prompt people to go to the doctor "too often" and the costs of doctor's visits since RCT can be pretty time intensive (but generally for a relatively brief time span) they can't predict the cost. So going to an RCT therapist for 6 or 12 visits may fix the problems. But that costs them quite a bit. Going once every six weeks to a doctor and getting a couple perscriptions is easy to plan for economically.

So sadly it becomes a matter of forecasting a known cost over the long run over an unkown short term cost. Plus given the number of what can only be regarded as quacks with degrees and Rx pads, encouraging patients to spend more time with Jungians would end up doing more damage and cost more to treat the underlying illness.