Positive and Negative Affect During Pharmacological Treatment and Cognitive Therapy for MDD (1 CE)

Number of Credits: 1

This course is for:  Clinical Psychologists, Counselors, Nurses, and LMFTs

Course By: Michael Parent, PhD

Content By: Dunn, B. D., German, R. E., Khazanov, G., Xu, C., Hollon, S. D., & DeRebeis, R. J. (2020). Changes in positive and negative affect during pharmacological treatment and cognitive therapy for major depressive disorder: A secondary analysis of two randomized controlled trials. Clinical Psychological Science, 8, 36-51. doi: 10.1177/2167702619863427

Course Description: Treatments for major depressive disorder show only partial effectiveness, with about one third of patients experiencing remission and over half of patients relapsing within two years after successful treatment. Treatment may be enhanced by targeting central nodes in networks of affective interrelations that promote depression. The authors of the presented studies used data from two randomized controlled trials focused on treating depression to assess how well current treatments address positive affect and negative affect. Treatments appeared to be effective at reducing negative affect and increasing positive affect, but the effects for negative affect were stronger. The authors conclude that current treatments for depression do not adequately work to enhance positive affect. Future work may explore means by which positive affect can be directly targeted for intervention in treatment for depression.

Learning Objectives:

1. List 1 key finding from the first study and 1 key finding from the second study.
2. Identify 3 limitations of the methods used in both studies and explain the implications of these limitations in the context of future research in this area.
3. List 5 limitations of the analyses and results of both studies, as discussed by the authors in the general discussion.

Course Outline:

1. Read and understand Changes in positive and negative affect during pharmacological treatment and cognitive therapy for major depressive disorder: A secondary analysis of two randomized controlled trials.
2. Review the Course Description and Learning Objectives.
3. Review the findings of this study with regard to changes in positive affect and negative affect during treatment for depression.
4. Complete the post-test questions. Recall that answers should be based on the referenced article.
5. Return to the referenced article for any missed questions and/or to understand changes in positive affect and negative affect during treatment for depression.

Implicit biases incorporate an association that occurs outside of conscious awareness that may resultantly lead to a negative patient evaluation derived from irrelevant characteristics; i.e. gender and/or race. A systematic review of the literature was conducted. Thirty-five studies identified the existence of implicit bias in healthcare professionals; all correlational studies evidenced a significant positive relationship between implicit bias levels and lower quality of care (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017). Continued research in health care settings, combined with greater method homogeneity, should be employed to examine the occurrence and prevalence of implicit biases in healthcare settings as a strategic approach for mitigating related disparities (FitzGerald & Hurst, 2017).

Reference

FitzGerald, C., Hurst, S. (2017). Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: a systematic review. BMC Med Ethics 18, 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-017-0179-8