Recent research: CBT, insomnia & depression, GP visits & health anxiety, desensitization & medication, agoraphobia & panic
Last updated on 21st August 2008
Manber, R., J. D. Edinger, et al. (2008).
Manber, R., J. D. Edinger, et al. (2008).
Energy is the only life, and is from the body; and reason is the bound or outward circumference of energy. Energy is eternal delight
- William Blake
The "Improving Access to Psychological Therapies" (IAPT) initiative is very ambitious and exciting. It states its principal aim is to support English Primary Care Trusts in implementing "National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence" (NICE) guidelines for people suffering from depression and anxiety disorders. It comments "The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme began in 2008 and has transformed treatment of adult anxiety disorders and depression in England. Over 900,000 people now access IAPT services each year, and the 'five year forward view for mental health' committed to expanding services further, alongside improving quality."
Do not think less of yourself, but think of yourself less.
- C. S. Lewis
Here are a whole series of handouts and questionnaires on intrusive memories, imagery, trauma and PTSD. They overlap with handouts listed in the "Life review, traumatic memories & therapeutic writing" section of this website. The "tag cloud" provides links to further relevant information - for example by clicking on tags like "PTSD", "trauma" or "imagery". Also of specific relevance are three posts about Marylene Cloitre's
I never lose. I either win or learn.
- Nelson Mandela
Here are many of the handouts and questionnaires I use currently (autumn '09) when working with people suffering from panic disorder, agoraphobia, OCD or depersonalization/derealization disorder.
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.
- Seneca
In May 2013, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published a new evidence-based clinical guideline on "Social anxiety disorder: recognition, assessment and treatment". They state: "This clinical guideline offers evidence-based advice on the recognition, assessment and treatment of social anxiety disorder in children and young people (from school age to 17 years) and adults (aged 18 years and older).
Any unexplained phenomenon passes through three stages before the reality of it is accepted. During the first stage it is considered laughable. During the second stage, it is adamantly opposed. Finally, during the third stage, it is accepted as self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Here is a mixed bag of handouts and questionnaires. Most are spin-offs from CBASP (pronounced 'seebasp') - the awkwardly named cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy. There are also a few handouts which are adapted downloads from the neurosciences site "The brain from top to bottom". When in 2000, Keller et al reported on the very impressive results obtained by treating chronic depression with a mixture of CBASP and antidepressants, it seemed likely that a big step forward had been taken in improving the lot of chronic depression sufferers. The "CBASP research results" handout (below) gives the abstracts for 14 research papers that are both relevant to CBASP and also highlight other important related themes like th
What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility. - Leo Tolstoy
Here are a series of forms, questionnaires and handouts that I use regularly in my work. The problem solving diagram is a recurring theme - both at the start of therapy and as a sheet to return to when reviewing and considering additional therapeutic options. Other sheets are classic variants on the tools used by many cognitive behavioural therapists - with occasional alternatives and additions, that I've come up with over the years, thrown in as well.
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
Depression assessment scales come in two basic forms - interviewer/clinician rated and sufferer/patient rated. As stated in the background information on the IDS/QIDS questionnaires (see below) "There are several accepted clinician rated and patient self report measures of depressive symptoms. The most commonly used clinician rated scales are the 17, 21, 24, 28, and 31 item versions of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) (Hamilton 1960, 1967), and the 10-item Montgomery-Asberg Scale (Montgomery and Asberg 1979). The most frequently used self-reports include the 13, and 21 item version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (Beck et al. 1961), the BDI-II (Beck et al. 1996), the Zung Depression Rating Scale (Zung 1965), the Carroll Rating Scale (CRS) (Carroll et al. 1981), and the Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 (PHQ-9) (Kroenke et al.