Simple Technique Significantly Improves Depression Symptoms

A technique known as Socratic questioning (SQ) can significantly improve symptoms of depression, according to a recent study.

SQ involved posing a series of questions in which the patient is asked to consider new perspectives on themselves and the world around them.
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For their study, researchers examined 55 adults with depressive symptoms during a 16-week course of SQ. Participants completed a questionnaire measuring their depressive symptoms at the beginning of each session.

Overall, sessions with greater use of SQ were more often followed by greater improvements in depressive symptoms than those in which SQ was used less often.

“We found that Socratic questioning was predictive of symptom improvements above and beyond the therapeutic relationship—the variable that has been most examined in previous studies,” researchers wrote.

“We think that one of the reasons that cognitive therapy has such enduring positive effects is that patients learn to question their negative thoughts, and continue doing so even after the treatment ends.”

Further studies are needed to determine which patients would benefit most from the use of SQ, they noted.

The complete study published in the August issue of the Behaviour Research and Therapy.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:

Braun JD Strunk DR, Sasso KE, Cooper AA. Therapist use of Socratic questioning predicts session-to-session symptom change in cognitive therapy for depression. Behav Res Ther. 2015 August [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2015.05.004.