Depressed People React Better To Cheap Treatment, Study Reveals

Depression is suggested to be treated with a simple therapy called behavioral activation, which has been proven by a recent study on the condition. Depression affects many people who struggle to seek more affordable treatment.

The treatment to depression can be expensive and the number of qualified therapists are not enough to sustain the growing number of patients with depression. A new study on depression revealed that the condition can be treated with a simple and cheap type of talk therapy rather than the gold standard treatment.

Depression is currently treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is an inside-out depression treatment that focuses on the way people think, said David Richards, a professor of mental health services research at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, who led the study. Behavioral activation, on the other hand, is an outside-in depression treatment that seeks to help people with depression change the way they act.

The depression treatment lies in the premise that the mood and behavior of people are correlated, and that increasing engagement in activities that the person finds meaningful can combat depression. At the same time, people are also allowed to reduce behaviors that may result in isolation of certain situations, which can worsen depression.

As the researchers suggested, behavioral activation on a wide scale could reduce healthcare costs while giving patients with depression proper treatment. The use of behavioral activation treatment indicated that health services worldwide could reduce the need for costly professional training and infrastructure. It could also improve depression patients' access to talk therapy treatment and reduce long waiting lists, US News reported.

Behavioral activation treatment is cheaper and is a less complex depression treatment, which makes it easier to train people to deliver the therapy. The treatment cost of behavioral activation is $1,277 per person on an average, compared to CBT treatment which is $1,618. It is a 20 percent cost of savings, National Daily Press reported.

The depression treatment study does not suggest that behavioral activation should replace CBT. However, healthcare systems that have a shortage of psychologists could begin training health workers in behavioral activation to provide treatment to patients with depression.