When treating mental disorders like depression, sometimes simpler treatments can prove more effective.
Hear Dr. Michael Bordieri with the Murray State University Department of Psychology speaks with Tracy Ross on Sounds Good about the resurging idea.
Bordieri brings up the concept of Occam’s razor; when there are competing theories that both solve or explain something, the simpler one is usually best. The idea is that science doesn’t need to be complicated solely for complication’s sake.
He says while complex treatments are sometime necessary, other times it’s simpler ones that can do the job just as well.
This can be true of depression, for example. Bordieri says back in the 60s or 70s, a commonly accepted theory was that depression came about from a lack of rewards, or reinforcers. Treatments were designed solely to get patients back in touch with those reinforcers.
These methods, known as behavioral activation, can work as well as medication and have re-surged in the last few years.
Bordieri says typically, therapy can be administered as a package – a group of different treatments all at once. He says while it can work, it may be difficult to identify which single method gave the most benefit.
Overall, Bordieri says adopting simpler methods like behavior activation could help treat the most people at a faster rate.
