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ViewAttendees 7

Symposia

Treatment - CBT

Session: Sharing and Leveraging the Lessons of CBT: Understanding How CBT Works and Using that Understanding to Inform Interventions

4 - (SYM 111) Skill Enhanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Can We Leverage CBT Skills Further to Enhance Clinical Outcomes?

Saturday, November 18, 2023
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM PST
Location: Snohomish (605), Level 6

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression is an effective treatment that may work by promoting clients’ development of cognitive behavioral coping skills. Use of these skills has been found to predict subsequent symptom improvement in CBT and lower risk of relapse after treatment ends. We conducted a randomized clinical trial to test a skill enhanced form of CBT (CBT-SE), a new treatment that places greater emphasis on fostering the development and independent use of these skills. We tested whether CBT-SE would lead to greater CBT skills or enhanced therapeutic outcomes. Participants were adults in Ohio with a depressive disorder and a current major depressive episode. A total of 150 adults (M age = 31.3, SD age = 10.4) were eligible to participate. Consistent with the state demographics, most were Non-Hispanic White (72%, n = 108). A majority were female at birth (60.7%, n = 91), with 11 (7.3%) reporting a gender that differed from their natal sex. The most common sexual orientation was heterosexual (68.7%, n = 103). Patients were offered 12 weeks of CBT or CBT-SE for depression with protocols allowing for up to 20 sessions of acute treatment. All sessions were provided via telehealth. Although CBT-SE resulted in significantly greater ongoing use of CBT skills than CBT (d = .10), the treatments did not differ in symptom reduction overall. Treatments did not differ in dropout or number of sessions attended. Among patients who were more severely depressed, CBT-SE led to significantly greater use of CBT skills (d = .25) and symptom reduction (d = .45). Our findings show that treatment procedures intended to foster CBT skill development do in fact lead to greater positive changes in CBT skills. Among the more severely depressed, the skill promoting intervention had a specific effect on skill use and resulted in a greater reduction of depressive symptoms.

 

ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT04673513