Theories

Clinical depression is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders. Because

depression is associated with an increased risk for suicide, it is also one

of the more severe disorders. For these reasons, psychologists have devoted

much effort to determining the causes of depression and developing effective

treatments.

Theories and treatments of depression can be classified into four groups:

emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physical. In the first half of the twentieth

century, the psychoanalytic theory of depression, which emphasizes the

role of the emotion of anger, dominated clinical psychology’s thinking

about the causes and treatment of depression. Following the discovery of

the first antidepressant medications in the 1950’s, psychologists increased

their attention to physical theories and treatments of depression. Since the

early 1970’s, Beck’s and Seligman’s cognitive approaches and Lewinsohn’s

behavioral theory have received increased amounts of attention. By the

1990’s, the biological, cognitive, and behavioral theories of depression had

all surpassed the psychoanalytic theory of depression in terms of research

support for their respective proposed causes and treatments.

Another shift in emphasis in psychology’s thinking about depression concerns

childhood depression. Prior to the 1970’s, psychologists paid relatively

little attention to depression in children; classical psychoanalytic theory

suggested that children had not yet completed a crucial step of their

psychological development that psychoanalysts believed was necessary for a

person to become depressed. Thus, many psychologists believed that children

did not experience depression or that, if they did become depressed,

their depressions were not severe. Research in the 1970’s demonstrated that

children do experience depression and that, when depressed, children exhibit

symptoms similar to those of depressed adults. Since the 1970’s, psychologists

have devoted much effort to understanding the cause and treatment

of childhood depression. Much of this work has examined how the

biological, cognitive, and behavioral models of depression, originally developed

for and applied to adults, may generalize to children.

Another shift in psychology’s thinking about depression concerns the attention

paid to mild and moderate depressions. Since the 1960’s, clinical

psychology has been interested in the early detection and treatment of minor

conditions in order to prevent the development of more severe disorders.

This emphasis on prevention has influenced the field’s thinking about

depression. Since the early 1970’s, psychologists have applied cognitive and

behavioral models of depression to nonpatients who obtain high scores on

measures of depression. Even though these individuals are not clinically depressed,

they still experience significant distress and so may benefit from the

attention of psychologists. By using cognitive or behavioral interventions

with these individuals, psychologists may prevent the development of more

severe depressions.

Sources for Further Study

Beck, Aaron T., A. J. Rush, B. F. Shaw, and G. Emery. Cognitive Therapy of Depression.

1979. Reprint. New York: Guilford Press, 1987. Summarizes the

cognitive theory of depression and describes how this model can be applied

in the treatment of depressed patients.

Beutler, Larry E., John F. Clarkin, and Bruce Bongar. Guidelines for the System

atic Treatment of the Depressed Patient. New York: Oxford University Press,

2000. Summarizes the state of research and extracts treatment principles

that can be applied by mental health professionals from a wide range of

theoretical backgrounds.

Blazer, Dan. Depression in Late Life. 3d ed. New York: Springer, 2002. A comprehensive

review of the treatment of depression among the elderly.

Covers epidemiology, pharmacology, depression and cognitive impairment,

unipolar and bipolar disorders, bereavement, and existential depression.

Hammen, Constance. Depression. New York: Psychology Press, 1997. A modular

course presenting research-based information on the diagnosis and

treatment of depression. Written for students and mental health professionals.

Lewinsohn, Peter M., Rebecca Forster, and M. A. Youngren. Control Your Depression.

Rev. ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. A self-help book for a

general audience. Describes Lewinsohn’s behavioral therapy, which has

been found to be an effective treatment for depression.

Nezu, Arthur M., George F. Ronan, Elizabeth A. Meadows, and Kelly S.

McClure, eds. Practitioner’s Guide to Empirically Based Measures of Depression.

New York: Plenum Press, 2000. Reviews and compares more than ninety

measures of depression in terms of requirements, suitability, costs, administration,

reliability, and validity.

Seligman, Martin E. P. Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death.

1975. Reprint. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1992. Seligman explains

the learned helplessness theory of depression, describing his early research

and comparing the symptoms of laboratory-induced helplessness

to those of clinical depression.

. New York: Oxford University Press,