Could talking therapy for depression prove better and cheaper than CBT?

Depression is a global pandemic that affects over 270 million people all over the world, according to the numbers listed by the World Health Organisation, and those same numbers continue to grow by the year. In the UK alone, around 1 in every 6 adults (16 per cent) of adults were reported to have experienced moderate to severe depressive symptoms in 2022.

One of the primary features of depression involves well-being deficits and having a reduced interest or pleasure in doing things, including doing the things you enjoy. However, current psychotherapies like CBT still fail to specifically target these components.

Because of this, a pilot trial by the University of Exeter for a new type of talking therapy, dubbed Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT), was recently conducted for the purpose of paying just as much attention to reducing symptoms of depression, as building well-being.

Barney Dunn, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter, said: "Depression is widespread and a significant contributor to global disability, resulting in extensive social and economic costs. Only around 60 percent of people will recover during our current best treatments like CBT and about half of those will relapse within two years."

Professor Dunn continued: "In ADepT, we encourage clients to take a new perspective to their difficulties, aiming to learn to live well alongside depressed mood."

Through the positive results of this pilot trial, which was also funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research, researchers have found that ADepT could very well prove to be a significant advance in the care of depression.

One of the trial's participants who had first-hand experience with ADepT is Katie, who commented favourably on the service, saying: "I've got a fairly long history of using mental health services and that's almost become my identity over the years. My focus in treatment before had always been on trying to eliminate symptoms of mental illness."

The young Katie continued: "ADepT has changed my outlook to help me take steps to gain wellbeing, as well as allowing me to be more authentic and act in a way more aligned to my values. ADepT is helping me make decisions which feel right and giving me more of an identity outside of mental illness, which is amazing."

This randomised pilot trial marks the first evaluation into the effectiveness of ADepT, with a total of 82 adults taking part. All of the participants were diagnosed with moderate to severe depression and admitted to loosing interest or pleasure (or both) in various activities.

Each of the willing participants was assigned to receive 20 sessions either with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or ADepT, in order for the researchers at the university to assess the effectiveness of both treatments after a span of six, 12 or 18 months.

The results suggested that ADepT showed strong potential to be better and more effective than CBT when building well-being and reducing depressive symptoms at the end of long-term treatment. Also, ADepT was designed to be delivered by CBT therapists alongside their own treatment with very little training involved.

And better still, ADepT was shown to be more cost-effective, specifically costing the same as CBT but producing far more promising results when increasing one's quality of life.