Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression in Older Adults Delivered via Videoconferencing: A Pilot Study

Behavioral activation for depression in older adults: Theoretical and practical considerations

“…Studies in the community included outpatient clinics (Acierno et al, 2012;Bottonari, Roberts, Thomas, & Read, 2008;Gallagher & Thompson, 1982;Lazzari, Egan, & Rees, 2011;Rokke, Tomhave, & Jocic, 1999;Thompson, Gallagher, & Breckenridge, 1987;Turner & Leach, 2009) and the client's home (Quijano et al, 2007;Teri, Logsdon, Uomoto, & McCurry, 1997;Yon & Scogin, 2009). Studies in residential care settings included assisted living (Cernin & Lichtenberg, 2009;Dozeman et al, 2011), nursing homes (Meeks, Looney, Van Haitsma, & Teri, 2008;Meeks, Teri, Van Haitsma, & Looney, 2006), a shortterm rehabilitation unit (Sood, Cisek, Zimmerman, Zaleski, & Fillmore, 2003), and inpatient psychiatric care facilities (Clignet, Van Meijel, Van Straten, Lampe, & Cuijpers, 2012;Snarski et al, 2011).…”

“…Acierno et al (2012) showed that individuals with varied levels of training and expertise (ranging from recent graduates of bachelor programs in psychology to experienced social workers) were able to implement behavioral activation. Moreover, behavioral activation interventions delivered via telephone Quijano et al, 2007) or videoconferencing (Lazzari et al, 2011) were also effective. These findings suggest considerable simplicity and flexibility in implementation, which has important implications for future research and practice.…”

“…Several studies described the use of measures such as activity inventories (Cernin & Lichtenberg, 2009;Meeks et al, 2006Meeks et al, , 2008Sood et al, 2003;Teri et al, 1997), activity lists included in treatment manuals (Clignet et al, 2012;Dozeman et al, 2011), and lists of community activities and resources (Acierno et al, 2012) to provide suggestions for planning activities. Other studies used collaborative activity selection based on individual goal setting (Bottonari et al, 2008;Lazzari et al, 2011;Quijano et al, 2007;Rokke et al, 1999;Snarski et al, 2011;Turner & Leach, 2009;Yon & Scogin, 2009). Scheduled activities based on clientrated levels of difficulty were also used (Acierno et al, 2012;Clignet et al, 2012;Lazzari et al, 2011;Snarski et al, 2011).…”

“…Other studies used collaborative activity selection based on individual goal setting (Bottonari et al, 2008;Lazzari et al, 2011;Quijano et al, 2007;Rokke et al, 1999;Snarski et al, 2011;Turner & Leach, 2009;Yon & Scogin, 2009). Scheduled activities based on clientrated levels of difficulty were also used (Acierno et al, 2012;Clignet et al, 2012;Lazzari et al, 2011;Snarski et al, 2011). Acierno et al (2012) incorporated social aspects into selected activities as often as possible, and included identifying activities that were negatively reinforcing (e.g., chores that reduced stress when finished) and activities that were incompatible with avoidance behavior.…”

“…Several studies included specific descriptions of indirect functional assessment activities, such as the collaborative identification of avoidance behaviors that may maintain depression (Bottonari et al, 2008;Turner & Leach, 2009), identification of sources of positive reinforcement in the client's living environment that could serve to maintain goal-oriented behaviors (Turner & Leach, 2009), and instruction of caregiver strategies for identifying and altering contingencies that may contribute to depression or associated behavior problems (Teri et al, 1997). Contingency management strategies such as using rumination as a prompt to engage in enjoyable activities (Bottonari et al, 2008) and providing social reinforcement for client efforts and progress (Acierno et al, 2012;Lazzari et al, 2011;Meeks et al, 2006Meeks et al, , 2008Sood et al, 2003) were also used. Future studies can contribute to more precise determination of environmental conditions that may facilitate or compromise the effectiveness of behavioral activation, as well as the effects of behavioral activation on depressed and nondepressed behavior maintained by positive or negative reinforcement.…”