INTEGRATING COGNITIVE THERAPY AND PHARMACOTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT AND PROPHYLAXIS OF DEPRESSION - A NOVEL-APPROACH

Psychiatric clinicians frequently prescribe biologic treatments such a s antidepressant medication in combination with psychologic treatments such as psychotherapy. In the present article we propose a model inte grating antidepressant treatment with Beck's cognitive therapy, a form of psychotherapy with established efficacy in the acute treatment of depression. We argue for adding cognitive therapy following successful pharmacological treatment, i.e., for spending cognitive therapy resou rces in the continuation phase of treatment, where they are most likel y to make a unique and separate contribution to patient well-being, pa rticularly in the areas of relapse prevention and treating residual sy mptoms. We encourage researchers to compare this treatment strategy to other approaches in terms of its ability to (1) prevent relapses and recurrences of depressive episodes, and (2) to impact positively on th e overall quality of life in recovered depressed patients.