• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

In the know: Thoughts on therapy for easing depressed patients

Stressed Out Nurses Weekly, April 20, 2009

Many people are depressed because of negative self-talk, or talk they internalized from what was said to them as children. This negative inner dialogue is so much a part of the person that he or she doesn’t recognize it as something that needs to be addressed. In addition to negative self-talk, many people simply find themselves in life situations for which they are ill-prepared. They do not know how to get out of them, or resolve the issues that surround them. Short-term talk therapy can come to their rescue. It can help people gain insight into and solve problems through verbal exchange with the therapist, sometimes combined with homework assignments between sessions.

As a nurse, it is important you know how therapy can help:

• Behavioral therapists help patients learn how to obtain more satisfaction and rewards through their own actions and how to unlearn the behavioral patterns that contribute to or result from their depression
• Interpersonal therapists focus on a patient’s disturbed personal relationships that both cause and exacerbate the depression
• Cognitive/behavioral therapists help patients change the negative styles of thinking and behavior often associated with depression
• Psychodynamic therapists focus on resolving the patient’s conflicted feelings

Source: Stressed Out About Difficult Patients, HCPro, Inc. 2007. Be sure to pick up your copy today!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive