Cognitive restructuring and improvement of symptoms with cognitive-behavioural therapy and pharmacotherapy in patients with depression

Background Since 1960, psychological theories of maladaptive behavior began to change their focus from enviornment to expectation, control, decision and helplessness on the individual level. After 1965, M.E.P. Seligman introduces the concept of learned helplessness representing a giving up reaction determined by the belief that whatever you do it doesn’t matter. According to theory [1] there are at least three types of inferences that people can make and this, changes the way people develop or not hopelessness followed by the simptoms of depressive lack of hope when confronted with negative life events [2]: 1) inference on the motive why certain events occur (inferated cause or causal attribution); 2) inference on the consequences which might result from events taking place (inferated consequences) and 3) inference on oneself given by events that have happened to oneself at some point (inference of personal characteristics). In this study we will investigate the efficiency of cognitive-behavioural and pharmaco-therapeutical interventions in changing depression symptoms and improving cognitive, emotional disfunctions and perception of social support. We investigate the relation between depression and disfuntional causal attributions, perception of social support, self esteem, emotions and reaction to daily life stress.