Abstract
Efficacious psychological treatments for depression. Although this is a review of de efficacy of psycholog ical treatments for unipolar depression, we begin by making reference to pharmacological treatments. It should be recognized that pharmacological treatments were the first to be established and are the most used, thereby setting the standard for new treatments. Refering to psychological treatments, there are three with sufficient controlled studies to be able to affirm that they are well established. They are behavior therap y (which includes six variants: program of pleasing activities, training in social skills, Lewinsohn's 'coping with depression course', self-control therapy, problem-solving therapy, and couple behavior therapy), Beck's cognitive therap y, and Klerman's interpersonal psychotherapy. We can add that these therapies have been demostrated to be at least as effective as the best pharmacolog ical treatments. Moreover, we conc lude that psychological treatment should be the election for unipolar depression. In any case, certain limitations in current conceptions about depression are discussed.
