Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate if future thinking would change following two forms of Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) for major depression. A second aim was to study the association between pre-post changes in future thinking and pre-post changes in depressive symptoms. Effects of psychological treatments are most often tested with self-report inventories and seldom with tests of cognitive function. We included data from 47 persons diagnosed with major depression who received either e-mail therapy or guided self-help during 8 weeks. Participants completed a future thinking task (FTT), in which they were asked to generate positive and negative events that they thought were going to happen in the future and rated the events in terms of emotion and likelihood. The FTT was completed before and after treatment. Data on depressive symptoms were also collected. FTT index scores for negative events were reduced after treatment. There was no increase for the positive events. Change scores for the FTT negative events and depression symptoms were significantly correlated. We conclude that ICBT may lead to decreased negative future thinking and that changes in depression symptoms correlate to some extent with reductions in negative future thinking.
References
Andersson, G. (2009). Using the internet to provide cognitive behaviour therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 175–180.
Andersson, G., Bergström, J., Holländare, F., Carlbring, P., Kaldo, V., & Ekselius, L. (2005). Internet-based self-help for depression: A randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Psychiatry, 187, 456–461.
Andersson, G., & Cuijpers, P. (2009). Internet-based and other computerized psychological treatments for adult depression: A meta-analysis. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 38, 196–205.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford press.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Garbin, M. G. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck depression inventory: Twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 77–100.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Bjärehed, J., Sarkohi, A., & Andersson, G. (2010). Less positive or more negative? Future directed thinking in mild to moderate depression. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 39, 37–45.
Cuijpers, P., Donker, T., van Straten, A., & Andersson, G. (2010). Is guided self-help as effective as face-to-face psychotherapy for depression and anxiety disorders? A meta-analysis of comparative outcome studies. Psychological Medicine, 40, 1943–1957.
de Jong-Meyer, R., Kuczmera, A., & Tripp, J. (2007). The impact of mood induction on the accessibility of positive and negative future events in a group of dysphoric adolescent in-patients. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 371–376.
Evans, K., Tyrer, P., Catalan, J., Schmidt, U., Davidson, K., Dent, J., et al. (1999). Manual-assisted cognitive-behaviour therapy (MACT): A randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention with bibliotherapy in the treatment of recurrent deliberate self-harm. Psychological Medicine, 29, 19–25.
First, M. B., Gibbon, M., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (1997). Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID-I). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Godley, J., Tchanturia, K., MacLeod, A., & Schmidt, U. (2001). Future-directed thinking in eating disorders. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40, 281–296.
Hadley, S. A., & MacLeod, A. K. (2010). Conditional goal-setting, personal goals and hopelessness about the future. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 1191–1198.
Holländare, F., Andersson, G., & Engström, I. (2010). Comparison between BDI-II and MADRS-S administered on the internet or on paper—are the psychometric properties the same? Journal of Medical Internet Research, 12(5), e49.
Lavender, A., & Watkins, E. (2004). Ruminations and future thinking in depression. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 129–142.
Lezak, M. (1995). Neuropsychological assessment (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Lundh, L.-G., & Öst, L.-G. (2001). Attentional bias, self-consciousness and perfectionism in social phobia before and after cognitive-behaviour therapy. Scandinavian Journal of Behaviour Therapy, 30, 4–16.
MacKinnon, D. P., Fairchild, A. J., & Fritz, M. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593–614.
MacLeod, A. K. (1999). Prospective cognitions. In T. Dalgleish & M. Power (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 267–280). Chichester: Wiley.
MacLeod, A. K., Rose, G. S., & Williams, J. M. G. (1993). Components of hopelessness about the future in parasuicide. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 17, 441–455.
MacLeod, A. K., & Salaminiou, E. (2001). Reduced positive future-thinking in depression: Cognitive and affective factors. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 99–107.
MacLeod, A. K., Tata, P., Evans, K., Tyrer, P., Schmidt, U., Davidson, K., et al. (1998). Recovery of positive future thinking within a high-risk parasuicide group: Results from a pilot randomized controlled trial. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 37, 371–379.
Steketee, G., & Chambless, D. L. (1992). Methodological issues in prediction of treatment outcome. Clinical Psychology Review, 12, 387–400.
Tang, T. Z., & DeRubeis, R. J. (1999). Sudden gains and critical sessions in cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 894–904.
Vernmark, K., Lenndin, J., Bjärehed, J., Carlsson, M., Karlsson, J., Öberg, J., et al. (2010). Internet administered guided self-help versus individualized e-mail therapy: A randomized trial of two versions of CBT for major depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 368–376.
Watkins, E. R., Baeyens, C. B., & Read, R. (2009). Concreteness training reduces dysphoria: Proof-of-principle for repeated cognitive bias modification in depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 55–64.
Williams, J. M. G., Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., & Soulsby, J. (2000). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in formerly depressed patients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 150–155.
Acknowledgments
This study was sponsored in part by a grant from the Swedish Research Council to Dr Andersson. We acknowledge the help from the members of the KLARA research group.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Andersson, G., Sarkohi, A., Karlsson, J. et al. Effects of Two Forms of Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Depression on Future Thinking. Cogn Ther Res 37, 29–34 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-012-9442-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-012-9442-y