Psychotherapy

Many forms of psychotherapy can help depressed individuals. "Talking therapies" help patients gain insight into their problems through a conversation with the therapist. Sometimes this is supplemented with "homework" assignments between sessions. "Behavioral" therapists help patients learn how to gain more satisfaction from life by helping them "unlearn" the behavioral patterns that contribute to their depression, among other strategies.

Choose another disease or condition... Allergic Rhinitis Allergies, Food Allergy & Asthma Center Alzheimer's Disease Anxiety Aortic Aneurysms Arrhythmia Arthritis, Osteo- (OA) Arthritis, Rheumatoid (RA) Asthma Atopic Dermatitis Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Back Pain Brain Tumor Bones, Joints & Muscles Center Breast Cancer Brain & Behavior Center Brain Tumor Cancer Center    Brain Tumor    Breast Cancer    Cancer Prevention    Clinical Trials    Colorectal Cancer    Endometrial Cancer    Living With and Beyond Cancer    Lung Cancer    Prostate Cancer    Skin Cancer Cardiomyopathy Cataracts Cholesterol Control Clinical Trials Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Colorectal Cancer Congenital Heart Disease Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) Crohn's Disease Depression Diabetes Center Diabetes, Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Digestive Disorders Center Eczema Endometrial Cancer Erectile Dysfunction (ED) Eye & Vision Center Fibromyalgia Food Allergies Gallstone Disease Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) GERD Glaucoma Hay Fever Headache Heart Center Hepatitis A Hepatitis B Hepatitis C High Blood Pressure Hypertension Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) Impotence Insomnia Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Living With and Beyond Cancer Losing Weight Lung Cancer Macular Degeneration Memory Loss Osteoarthritis (OA) Osteoporosis Parkinson's Disease Peptic Ulcer Prediabetes Prostate Cancer Respiratory Disorders Center Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Sexual & Reproductive Health Center Sinusitis Skin Cancer Sleep Apnea Sleep Center Stroke Type 1 Diabetes Type 2 Diabetes Ulcerative Colitis (UC) Weight Control See the top websites for information about depression Find a therapist Depression-Related Clinical Trials Information Email this page Print this section

Two of the short-term (10 to 20 once-a-week sessions) psychotherapies that research has demonstrated are helpful for some forms of depression are interpersonal and cognitive behavioral therapies. Interpersonal therapy focuses on the patients' disturbed personal relationships that can both cause a depression and make it worse. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps patients change the negative styles of thinking and behaving that are often associated with depression. When patients are able to become aware of the triggers in their thoughts or behavior that may make them feel worse, they then can consciously change their reactions to them.

Psychodynamic therapy focuses on resolving the patient's conflicted feelings. It often centers on the way that unhappy childhood experiences may be resonating through adulthood. This type of therapy is often reserved until the depressive symptoms are significantly improved. In general, severe depressive illnesses, particularly those that are recurrent, will require medication along with, or preceding, psychotherapy.