Depression: Benefits of Behavioral Therapy Over Prescription Drugs

If you take prescription drugs for depression, like Prozac or Zoloft, you may want to reconsider. Now, I'm not telling you they are bad drugs, but what I am telling you is that there is a more effective means to reliving depression. Studies have shown that cognitive therapy, which means seeing a cognitive psychologist, is just as effective as prescription drugs for relieving depression but more effective at eliminating depression altogether. Let me elaborate, recent studies show that relapse time for people who underwent cognitive therapy is 30 percent, in comparison to 70 percent for people using anti-depressants. If you don't understand what I mean think of it this way: the study showed that people who stopped using anti-depressants because they decided they no longer needed them had a 70 percent chance to revert back to their abnormal depressive moods. Likewise, for those who underwent cognitive therapy, the study showed that had only 30 percent chance to revert back to their abnormal depressive moods.

There are various arguments for why this happens. Some scientists think it has to do with moral support, which has been shown to help reduce addictions. However, others think it has to do with the therapy tapping into a certain part of the brain that is not affected by anti-depressants. Nevertheless, cognitive therapy helps you deal with your emotions, as opposed to anti-depressant in which they only help you relive your emotions for a short period of time. For this reason, anti-depressants act much like a pain-reliever - you take it to reduce the pain but it doesn't cure the problem.