Andrew Leuchter, M.D., Laboratory of Brain, Behavior and Pharmacology, UCLA
Question: What types of talk therapy help depression?
Answer: There are several different types of psychotherapy that can be helpful for adults with depression. The kind of psychotherapy that is most commonly prescribed these days are the brief structured psychotherapies -- so psychotherapy that might last only six to twelve sessions that's fairly structured and focused on solving particular problems.
These are therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal psychotherapy that really help the person to focus on what's going on their life in the here and now -- might help to address particular depressed feelings a person has, or to adjust their pattern of thinking. But these brief and focused psychotherapies are strongly evidence-based and they do appear to be highly effective for the treatment of depression.
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