Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:48:20.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychotherapy in the Maintenance Treatment of Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

Myrna M. Weissman
Myrna M. Weissman*
Affiliation:
College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, Division of Clinical and Genetic Epidemiology, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 722 West 168th Street, Box 14, New York, NY 10032, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A review of epidemiologic and clinical data on depression suggests that psychotherapy is both an important alternative as well as a supplement to medication for the maintenance treatment of depression. Psychotherapy is an alternative for patients during periods when medication may not be suitable or feasible (e.g. pregnancy, nursing, before or during major surgery, or in the elderly). Psychotherapy also has a role in maintenance treatment in dealing with the social and interpersonal consequences or triggers of recurrent depression. Although the number of continuation or maintenance treatment trials that include psychotherapy is quite limited, the efficacy of maintenance treatment in the delay of recurrence and enhancement of social functioning is best established for interpersonal psychotherapy. There are also some results concerning cognitive and behavioural therapies for maintenance treatment of depression.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 165 , Issue S26: Depression: Challenge for the '90s , December 1994 , pp. 42 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, A. T. (1976) Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. New York: International Universities Press.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1983) Cognitive therapy of depression: new perspectives. In Treatment of Depression: Old Controversies and New Approaches (eds P. J. Clayton & J. E. Barrett), pp. 265–284. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1987) Cognitive models of depression. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1, 5–37.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., et al (1979) Cognitive Theory of Depression. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Blackburn, I. M., Bishop, S., Glen, A. I. M., et al (1981) The efficacy of cognitive therapy in depression: a treatment trial using cognitive and pharmacotherapy, each alone and in combination. British Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 181–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blackburn, I. M., Eunson, K. M. & Bishop, S. (1986) A two-year naturalistic follow-up of depressed patients treated with cognitive therapy, pharmacotherapy and a combination of both. Journal of Affective Disorders, 10, 67–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conte, H. R., Plutchik, R., Wild, K. V., et al (1986) Combined psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 471–479.Google Scholar
Elkin, I., Shea, T. M., Watkins, J. T., et al (1989) National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program: general effectiveness of treatments. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 971–982.Google Scholar
Evans, M. D., Hollon, S. D., DeRubeis, R. J., et al (1992) Differential relapse following cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 802–808.Google Scholar
Frank, E., Kupfer, D. J., Perel, J. M., et al (1990) Three-year outcomes for maintenance therapies in recurrent depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 1093–1099.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frank, E., Kupfer, D. J., Wagner, E. F., et al (1991) Efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy as a maintenance treatment of recurrent depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 1053–1059.Google Scholar
Haaga, D. A. F., DeRubeis, R. J., Stewart, B. L., et al (1991) Relationship of intelligence with cognitive therapy outcome. Behavior Research and Therapy, 29, 277–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hersen, M., Bellack, A. S., Himmelhoch, J. M., et al (1984) Effects of social skills training, amitriptyline, and psychotherapy in unipolar depressed women. Behavior Therapy, 15, 21–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollon, S. D. & Beck, A. T. (1978) Psychotherapy and drug therapy: comparisons and combinations. In Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change: An Empirical Analysis (2nd edn) (eds Garfield, S. L. & Bergin, A. E.), pp. 437–490. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Hollon, S. D., Beck, A. T. & DeRubeis, R. J. (1981) Placebo-psychotherapy combinations: inappropriate representations of psychotherapy in drug-psychotherapy comparative trials. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 90, 467–477.Google Scholar
Hollon, S. D., Beck, A. T., Evans, M. D., et al (1992) Cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression: singly and in combination. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 774–781.Google Scholar
Keller, M. B., Lavori, P. W. & Mueller, T. I. (1992) Time to recovery, chronicity, and levels of psychopathology in major depression: a 5-year prospective follow-up of 431 subjects. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 809–816.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L. (1988) Drugs and psychotherapy. In Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (eds Garfield, S. B. & Bergen, A. E.), pp. 773–814. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L. (1990) Treatment of recurrent unipolar major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 47, 1158–1162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Klerman, G. L., Dimascio, A., Weissman, M., et al (1974) Treatment of depression by drugs and psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 186–191.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L., Weissman, M. M., Rounsaville, B. J., et al (eds) (1984) Interpersonal Psychotherapy For Depression. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L. & Weissman, M. M. (1989) Increasing rates of depression. Journal of the American Medical Association, 261, 2229–2235.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L. & Weissman, M. M. (1992) Interpersonal psychotherapy. In Handbook of Affective Disorders (2nd edn) (ed. Paykel, E. S.), pp. 501–510. London: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Klerman, G. L. & Weissman, M. M. (eds) (1993) New Applications of Interpersonal Psychotherapy. Washington, DC: APP.Google Scholar
Kovacs, M., Rush, A. J., Beck, A. T., et al (1981) Depressed outpatients treated with cognitive therapy or pharmacotherapy: a one-year follow-up. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 33–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kupfer, D. J., Frank, E. & Perel, J. M. (1992) Five-year outcome for maintenance therapies in recurrent depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 769–773.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewinsohn, P. M. (1974) A behavioral approach to depression. In Psychology of Depression: Contemporary Theory and Research (ed. Freedman, R. M.). Washington, DC: Wiley.Google Scholar
Miller, I. W., Norman, W. H., Keitner, G. I., et al (1989a) Cognitive–behavioral treatment of depressed inpatients. Behavior Therapy, 20, 25–47.Google Scholar
Miller, I. W., Norman, W. H., & Keitner, G. I. (1989b) Cognitive–behavioral treatment of depressed inpatients: six- and twelve-month follow-up. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1274–1279.Google Scholar
Mintz, J., Mintz, L. I., Arruda, M. J., et al (1992) Treatments of depression and the functional capacity to work. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 761–768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, G. E., Simons, A. D., Wetzel, R. D., et al (1984) Cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy: singly and together in the treatment of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 33–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S., Dimascio, A., Klerman, G. L., et al (1976) Maintenance therapy of depression. Pharmakopsychiatrie Neuropsychopharmakologie, 9, 127–136.Google Scholar
Shea, M. T., Elkin, I., Imber, S. D., et al (1992) Course of depressive symptoms over follow-up: findings from the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 782–787.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simons, A. D., Levine, J. L., Lustman, P. J., et al (1984) Patient attrition in a comparative outcome study of depression: a follow-up report. Journal of Affective Disorders, 6, 163–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simons, A. D., Murphy, G. E., Levine, J. L., et al (1986) Cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression: sustained improvement over 1 year. Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 43–48.Google Scholar
Smith, M. L. & Glass, G. V. (1977) Meta-analysis of psychotherapy outcome studies. American Journal of Psychology, 32, 752–760.Google Scholar
Smith, M. L., Glass, G. V. & Miller, T. I. (1980) The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Thase, M. E. (1992) Long-term treatments of recurrent depressive disorders. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 53 (suppl. 2), 32–44.Google Scholar
Warner, V., Weissman, M. M., Fendrich, M., et al (1992) The course of major depression in the offspring of depressed parents: incidence, recurrence and recovery. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 795–801.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M. (1979) The psychological treatment of depression: evidence for the efficacy of psychotherapy alone, in comparison with, and in combination with pharmacotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 1261–1269.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Klerman, G. L., Paykel, E. S., et al (1974) Treatment effects on the social adjustment of depressed patients. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30, 771–778.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M. & Kasl, S. V. (1976) Help seeking in depressed outpatients following maintenance therapy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 252–260.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Kasl, S. V. & Klerman, G. L. (1976) Follow-up of depressed women after maintenance treatment. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 757–760.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Klerman, G. L., Prusoff, B. A., et al (1981) Depressed outpatients: results 1 year after treatment with drugs and/or interpersonal psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 51–55.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Jarrett, R. B. & Rush, J. A. (1987) Psychotherapy and its relevance to the pharmacotherapy of major depression: a decade later (1976–1985). In Psychopharmacology: The Third Generation of Progress (eds A. DiMascio & F. Killam), pp. 1059–1069. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.