With depression becoming the primary disease in the 21st century and a growing number of addicts of various kinds, psychotherapy is still looking for answers to help these people find peace, break old habits, and start living a higher-quality life. Glasser (as cited in Sahebdel & Tahan, 2022) believed that the root of evil could be found in irrational and erroneous thinking. After decades of research and experimenting with approaches to clinical psychology, a new theoretical framework was constructed – motivational psychotherapy (MPT).
Motivational therapy is one of the primary treatment methods for depressive conditions, substance addictions, and alcohol abuse. Its purpose lies in endowing an individual with high motivation for prolonged abstention and further improvements in the quality of life (Sahebdel & Tahan, 2022). MPT sessions aim to increase awareness about the possible repercussions of the detrimental behavior one pursues, deliver success stories, and, finally, enhance self-efficacy that would help to get hold of the problem in the future (Saurav et al., 2021). These critical topics raised and carefully discussed during the sessions can equip the patient with tools they might find handy when coping with depression and withdrawal symptoms.
In contrast to the motivational approach, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on cognitive and environmental risks to prevent short-term and long-term relapses. According to Ray et al., “Cognitive behavioral therapy is a time-limited, multisession intervention that … provides training in behavioral self-control skills to help an individual achieve and maintain abstinence or harm reduction” (2020, p. 2). CBT has also been proven to enhance the rehabilitating effect when in conjunction with other approaches to treatment (Ray et al., 2020). As claimed by Pedrelli et al., “both treatment programs were associated with significant reductions of similar magnitude in HED, alcohol-related problems (ARP), and depressive symptoms at the end of treatment and at the 1-month follow-up evaluation” (2020, para 1). Considering these findings, combining motivational and cognitive behavioral therapy might help achieve better treatment outcomes.
In conclusion, two therapies focus on changing the patient’s mindset, as motivational therapy helps to achieve a desire for a cure. In contrast, cognitive-behavioral therapy helps to change old beliefs to consolidate the results. It would be reasonable to assume that CBT would enhance the positive effects of MPT, as it has proven to be the case with other methods of treatment. However, this assumption certainly requires further investigation.
References
Kumar, S., Srivastava, M., Srivastava, M., Yadav, J., Prakash, S. (2021). Effect of Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) on the self efficacy of individuals of Alcohol dependence. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 10(1), pp. 367-372.
Pedrelli, P., Borsari, B., Merrill, J. E., Fisher, L. B., Nyer, M., Shapero, B. G., & Weiss, R. D. (2020). Evaluating the combination of a brief motivational intervention plus cognitive behavioral therapy for depression and heavy episodic drinking in college students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 34(2), 308.
Ray, L. A., Meredith, L. R., Kiluk, B. D., Walthers, J., Carroll, K. M., & Magill, M. (2020). Combined pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for adults with alcohol or substance use disorders. JAMA Network Open, 3(6). Web.
Sahebdel, H., & Tahan, M. (2022). A review of the theory of motivational psychotherapy. Rivista di psichiatria, 57(4), 165-172.