Treating Later-life Depression: A Cognitive-behavioral Therapy Approach, Clinician Guide

The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program presented in this clinician guide is intended to support your service delivery to clients in the second half of life who are experiencing clinical or subclinical depression, with or without accompanying anxiety. The program reflects continuing international scientific and clinical advances in applying CBT to specific age-related problems. Over the past four decades, the two senior authors of this approach (DGT, LT) have developed empirically supported clinical interventions for older adults that embody the spirit and change strategies of traditional CBT. Many of these efforts have focused on later-life depression, establishing research support for the use of this treatment approach (Coon & Thompson, 2003; Gallagher & Thompson, 1982; Gallagher-Thompson et al., 1990; Thompson & Gallagher, 1984; Thompson, 1996; Thompson et al., 1987; Thompson et al., 2001). Our treatment approach is consistent with critical reviews (Braun et al., 2016), meta-analytic studies (Cuipers et al., 2014; Cuipers et al., 2016; Cuipers et al., 2018; Wilkinson, & Izmeth, 2016), and the depression treatment guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2019); all of these support and recommend the use of CBT with depressed older adults