This is Panic 13.1 - Therapy in the news

Well folks this is a bit of an update from the last post. Whilst on BBC News earlier I stumbled across this@

Link to "'Talk therapy for the depressed"

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (aka NICE) have come out saying that antidepressants shouldn't be used to treat depression in adults with chronic health problems but rather they should be directed towards structured physical acitvity and Cognitive Behavoiral Therapy for help.

MIND, the mental health focussed charity have responded saying that shifting too much of a focus towards CBT and computerised CBT and away from counselling could be seen as an excuse by some health providers to cut funding to other talk based therapies.

Reading the advice from NICE, I can see where they come from to an extent but it seems very much like they are trying to pick one therapy that "works" best and then tar all people with the same brush somewhat.

Depression (and anxiety as they are linked) relating to chronic health problems or even chronic health anxiety is very much a different thing for different people and to push one form of talk therapy over other kinds seems irresponsible to me. It's not scientific to assume that all people will benefit from one kind of therapy to a mental illness.

Take the drugs from the statin family, used for blood pressure conditions. There are a variety of different statins used for different people and you tailor to the patient. Essentially what this advice from NICE seems to be is totally disregarding that individual patients and thrust one kind of therapy upon people which doesn't sit well with me.

I'd hope that NICE will listen to constructive criticisms from the mental health professional community and be prepared to alter that advice in the future.

As ever, this is just the ramblings of myself so please do read the article and the advice from NICE at their website; click here for that.