Abstract
Understanding the onset and course of sudden gains in treatment provides clinical information to the patient and clinician, and encourages clinicians to strive for these sudden clinical gains with their patients. This study characterizes the occurrence of sudden gains with Behavioral Activation (BA; Martell, Addis, & Jacobson, 2001), and the extent to which pre-treatment dysfunctional depressive thinking predicts sudden gains during treatment. We enrolled a sample of adults (n = 42) between ages 18-65 diagnosed with primary Major Depressive Disorder. All participants completed a 16-week course of BA, with clinical and self-report assessments at pre-, mid- and post-treatment. Results indicated that sudden gain and non-sudden gain participants showed differential improvement across treatment. No significant effects emerged for the dysfunctional cognitive style as a predictor of sudden gain status. Sudden gains may result from interaction of non-specific factors with the BA techniques implemented during early phases of therapy.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 223-230 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Behaviour Research and Therapy |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2012 |
Funding
This project was supported in part by an NIMH R21 MH082133 research grant, as well as by the Brain Research Foundation, American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, Educational Foundation of America, and National Alliance for Research for Schizophrenia and Depression. None of these funding sources held a role in study design, or in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Keywords
- Behavioral activation
- Major depression
- Sudden gains
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Clinical Psychology
