Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy for Mood Disorders

It is well established that individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs) suffer from mood disorders. Individuals with IDs present with a similar set of depressive behaviors, including dysfunctional cognitive deficits similar to individuals without IDs such as having a low self-concept, attending to negative features of an event, and making negative causal attributions for stressful events (Benson & Ivins, 1992; Esbensen & Benson, 2006; Hartley & MacLean, 2009). Standardized criteria for major depression episodes, manic episodes, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder among individuals with IDs are now available, with limited modifications needed from the criteria for the general population (Fletcher et al., 2007). Although much is understood about the treatment of these disorders for the general population, less is known about their appropriateness among individuals with IDs. Cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most common treatments, and one of the few established empirically supported treatments by the American Psychological Association (Chambless & Hollon, 1998) for depression in the general population. Preliminary studies suggest that CBT may also be beneficial for treating depression in individuals with IDs when training procedures and modifications are used (e.g., Lindsay et al., 1997; McCabe et al., 2006). This chapter will review the core features of CBT for treating depression, training procedures, and modifications to CBT appropriate for individuals with IDs, and the empirical support for these training procedures and modifications.