Comparative effectiveness of social problem-solving therapy and reminiscence therapy as treatments for depression in older adults.

Abstract

Compared the effects of 2 psychotherapies based on divergent conceptualizations of depression in later life. Seventy-five older adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder were assigned randomly to problem-solving therapy (PST), reminiscence therapy (RT), or a waiting-list control (WLC) condition. Participants in PST and RT were provided with 12 weekly sessions of group treatment. Dependent measures, taken at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up, included self-report and observer-based assessments of depressive symptomatology. At posttreatment, both the PST and the RT conditions produced significant reductions in depressive symptoms, compared with the WLC group, and PST participants experienced significantly less depression than RT subjects. Moreover, a significantly greater proportion of participants in PST versus RT demonstrated sufficient positive change to warrant classification of their depression as improved or in remission at the posttreatment and follow-up evaluations.

Caregiving burden and psychiatric morbidity in spouses of persons with mild cognitive impairment

“…These interventions could be specifically designed to strengthen intrapersonal skills and resources in order to prevent the worsening of psychiatric symptoms as some of these caregivers progress to become dementia caregivers. For example, to the extent that caregiver burden contributes to psychiatric morbidity, interventions designed to promote affective self-management and adaptive coping skills training, implemented very early in the caregiving trajectory, hold promise for contributing to more positive mental health outcomes in these spousal caregivers (Areán et al, 1993;Hosaka and Sugiyama, 1999;Gallagher-Thompson et al, 2000;Hepburn et al, 2001;Alexopoulos, et al, 2003). Self-management interventions, with their focus on promoting self-efficacy (i.e.…”

Patterns of Reduced Cortical Thickness in Late-Life Depression and Relationship to Psychotherapeutic Response

“…Psychotherapeutic interventions are becoming increasingly recognized as an evidence based treatment for LLD (20–24) and these interventions are typically conceptualized as requiring a significant amount of cognitive processing in order to be effective. As such, psychotherapies have been modified to accommodate for cognitive impairments that are common in LLD (14, 22, 23).…”

Predicting outcome of Internet-based treatment for depressive symptoms

“…Reminiscence therapy was found to be an effective intervention for ''good'' as well as ''poor'' problem-solvers and for ''good'' life integrators, but not for ''poor'' life integrators. However, the effectiveness of the treatments for these subgroups was dependent on how depression was measured, in other words, on whether depression was measured with observer-based or self-report measures (Arean et al, 1993).…”

“…Also, cognitive therapy was more effective in reducing depression for married or cohabiting participants, while single participants reacted better to interpersonal therapy (Barber & Muenz, 1996). One study evaluated whether pre-existing deficits in either problem-solving or life integration are predisposing factors for differential response to PST and reminiscence therapy for depression in older adults (Arean et al, 1993). PST was found to be effective in reducing depressive symptoms for ''poor'' as well as ''good'' problem-solvers and for ''poor'' as well as ''good'' life integrators.…”