Cognitive Therapy for Depression

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Abstract
Thirty-one community-residing older adults age 60 or over either received 16 sessions of individual cognitive psychotherapy (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979) or read Feeling Good (Burns, 1980) for bibliotherapy. Posttreatment comparisons with the delayed-treatment control indicated that both treatments were superior to a delayed-treatment control. Individual psychotherapy was superior to bibliotherapy at posttreatment on self-reported depression, but there were no differences on clinician-rated depression. Further, bibliotherapy participants continued to improve after posttreatment, and there were no differences between treatments at 3-month follow-up. Results suggest that bibliotherapy and that individual psychotherapy are both viable treatment options for depression in older adults.