It's All in the Head: Psychotherapy Changes Brain Activity

Medication or psychotherapy? Pharmaceutical companies would have us believe that depression and anxiety disorders cannot possibly be lifted if we don't address the underlying neurochemical imbalance with medication. Yet increasing evidence indicate that receiving counseling and therapy brings about similar changes in the brain that are associated with improved mood and functioning.

I'm really excited about findings like this. To be sure, I'm not advocating that we do away with medication altogether. Medication may indeed be necessary to treat psychotic symptoms or severe depression. But I am hopeful this and other studies will get us to think twice before we reach out for that bottle of Adderrall or Concerta for ourselves or our kids.

clipped from www.psychologytoday.com The Biology of Psychotherapy growing evidence from brain imaging research suggests that the form of therapy known as cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, produces changes in the brain similar to those produced by medications when they work. Cognitive behavioral therapy emphasizes the role our thoughts play in how we feel. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by anxiety-laden intrusive thoughts and accompanying repetitive behaviors that are meant to reduce the anxiety. In a study that compared CBT to Prozac, researchers used a brain-scanning technique called positron emission tomography to measure the rate of glucose metabolism in the OCD brain after Prozac treatment alone and after therapy treatment alone. The results were essentially identical: both interventions decreased the rate of glucose metabolism to levels seen in healthy people without OCD, and the rate of the decrease seemed proportional to the degree of improvement in their OCD symptoms.