Candidate: Jenifer M. Cullen

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: Psychology

Title: Testing the Effectiveness of Behavioral Activation Therapy in the Acute Treatment of Unipolar Depression

Committee:
Dr. C. Richard Spates, Chair
Dr. Galen Alessi
Dr. Malcolm Robertson
Dr. Lisa Largo-Marsh

Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2002 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
3715 Wood

Abstract:
The present study sought to investigate the clinical effectiveness of Behavioral Activation (BA) Therapy, the behavioral activation component of Beck's Cognitive Therapy (CT; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Seventeen adults seeking mental health services for Unipolar Depression were recruited for the Kalamazoo and Southwestern Michigan regions. All participants were randomly assigned to either (1) and Immediate Treatment Group or (2) a wait-list control group, while both received 10 weeks of BA therapy. Depressive symptomatology for both conditions were assessed at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, Ball & Ranieri, 1996), the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV-Non-Patient Version (SCID; First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1997), and the Revised Hamiloton Rating Scale for Depression (RHRSD; Warren, 1996). It was hypothesized that at the completion of treatment, participants in both the treatment and wait-list conditions would be significantly less depressed both on a self-report measure and a clinician rating of severity of depression. It was further hypothesized that the waitlist participants would show no change during the waitlist period.

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