Do patients' cognitive therapy skills predict personality change during treatment of depression?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Psychological interventions can change personality, including increasing positive temperament (extraversion) and decreasing negative temperament (neuroticism), but why these changes occur is unclear. The current study tested the extent to which patients' acquisition and use of skills taught in cognitive therapy (CT) correlated with changes in positive and negative temperament during treatment of depression.

Method

Outpatients (N = 351) with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD) were enrolled in a 12-week CT protocol. Temperament (early and late in CT), patient skills (mid and late in CT), and depressive symptoms (early, mid, and late in CT) were measured repeatedly.

Results

Patients with greater acquisition and use of CT skills showed significantly larg

SUBMITTER: Vittengl JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7855535 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature