The Mental Health Foundation has welcomed the UK Department of Health’s announcement that it will make computer-based cognitive behavioural therapy available to patients with common mental health problems such as anxiety or mild to moderate depression.
From the 1st November to 3rd January, visitors to the Mental Health Foundation’s website will be able to get free access to Depression Relief — an online self-help program that uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques.
A recently published Danish study of treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder suggests that cognitive behavioural therapy offers more specific antiobsessional effects than a standard medication, although CBT together with the medication provided the greatest overall improvement in mood. CBT remains the most studied of all psychotherapy approaches, with a growing body of research supporting its effectiveness.
A brief report from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine suggests that a fMRI scan may be able to predict whether or not cognitive behavioural therapy can help a person suffering from unipolar depression to recover.
No, that’s not to say that CBT will put you to sleep! Rather, an article carried on the APA’s PsycPort highlights studies indicating that cognitive behavioural therapy can improve sleep about as well as drugs can. According to the article, not only can talk therapy such as CBT help with sleeping problems, but its effects continue for many months — unlike the effects of drugs, where effectiveness is not known to continue after discontinuing the medication.
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