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Behavioural Activation Treatment For Depression: A Review Of The Literature ; Effects Of A Brief Behavioural Activation Treatment On Activity Levels And Depression, Debra L. Bailey

Theses : Honours

Behavioural activation (BA) is an emergent psychological treatment for depression rooted in the tradition of behavioural theory. This paper discusses the manner in which BA arose as a result of the seminal Jacobson et al. (1996) study, which dismantled the behavioural and cognitive components of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Published empirical studies examining the effectiveness of BA are reviewed and considerations for future research are offered. It is concluded that BA shows promise as a parsimonious, effective, and potentially cost-efficient psychological treatment for depression. However, more large-scale research is needed: in samples with low …