Can the Memory Support Intervention Improve Depression Outcome Following Cognitive Therapy?

There is evidence that CT for major depressive disorder (MDD) can be as effective as antidepressant medication for the initial treatment of moderate to severe MDD. Moreover, following the withdrawal of treatment, patients treated with CT are significantly less likely to relapse than patients treated with antidepressant medication and CT is at least as effective as antidepressant medication in preventing subsequent relapse. CT aims to alter the symptomatic expression of depression and reduce risk for subsequent episodes by correcting the negative beliefs and maladaptive information processing presumed to underlie the disorder and alter the systematic tendency to misperceive reality in a pessimistic fashion.

The Memory Support Intervention will be delivered interwoven with CT. The Memory Support Intervention is designed to improve patient memory for treatment and involves a series of specific procedures that support the encoding and retrieval stages of episodic memory. It is comprised of eight memory promoting strategies: attention recruitment, categorization, evaluation, application, repetition, practice remembering, cued-based reminder and praise recall. These strategies are proactively, strategically and intensively integrated into treatment-as-usual to support encoding. Memory support is delivered alongside each 'treatment point', defined as a main idea, principle, or experience that the treatment provider wants the patient to remember or implement as part of the treatment.