Interesting Science-Based Benefits of Psychotherapy

Historically, mental illness has been ‘treated’ in a host of dangerous and sometimes horrifying ways.

Around 7000 years ago, trepanation was the treatment de jour. It was thought that mental illness was caused by evil spirits and could be cured by drilling small holes into the brain.

While trepanation and other surgical methods such as lobotomies have unsurprisingly fallen out of favor, there is another approach – one that has been both celebrated and scorned over the last century: Psychotherapy.

What are the Benefits of Psychotherapy?

• Meta-analyses of psychodynamic psychotherapy studies indicated that short-term treatment improved symptoms of depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa. When patients were reassessed nine months after treatment, the effect size of psychodynamic therapy had increased. An indication of lasting psychological changes that yielded further benefits as time passed (Busch, Rudden, & Shapiro, 2004).

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• Ongoing anger and stress are major contributors to high blood pressure and a number of related health issues. Linden & Moseley (2006) found that psychotherapy produced the same level of systolic blood pressure reductions as anti-hypertension medication.

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• Psychotherapeutic counseling in the treatment of heroin addiction has been shown to improve the attendance of subjects while undertaking detoxification treatment. When compared to those receiving detoxification alone, subjects receiving both treatments simultaneously were more likely to enter long-term treatment following the initial program (Rawson, Mann, Tennant, & Clabough, 1983).
  
  
• Meaning-centered group psychotherapy has been shown to reduce psychological distress and improve spiritual well-being in patients with advanced or terminal cancer (Breitbart, 2015).

CREDIT : POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY .COM

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