Cognitive behavioral approaches to the patients suffering from depression due to maladjustment in the work place: two...

The authors report two cases of depression in which Beck's cognitive therapy was effective. Case 1 was a 32-year-old man who had been troubled with the recurrent depression for about eight years in spite of regular medication. Case 2 was a 30-year-old man who had been chronically depressed for one year. Maladjustment in the work place was involved in the development of their depressive symptoms. Through the psychotherapeutic sessions, they were encouraged to identify their cognitive distortions such as emotional reasoning, all-or-nothing thinking and disqualifying the positive, and assisted to modify their cognitive distortions by means of cognitive behavioral techniques. Gradually gaining self-efficacy, they became able to cope well with their present problems. Both of them finally recovered from depression and, especially in case 1, he could overcome recurrence. The active ingredients in successful cognitive therapy were discussed. It was also stressed that the capacity to be sufficiently introspective to identify negative automatic thoughts and to be sufficiently logical to understand how the thoughts are distorted was requisite for this therapy.