This is how psychotherapy for depression changes the brain

Participants with major depression showed increased activity in left rostral anterior cingulate cortex following psychological therapy – see main text for details. Image via Sankar et al, 2018 By Alex Fradera In recent years, researchers have sought to look under the hood to understand the neural correlates of the changes brought about by psychotherapy. Not only can such understanding help us hone in on the precise processes that are being acted upon in therapy, thus helping us focus on these gains, they could also show where pharmacological interventions might be complementary, and where they could directly obstruct the therapeutic work. Now a systematic review and meta-analysis in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging has outlined all we know so far about how therapy changes the depressed brain, and it suggests key changes occur in emotional processing areas. An international team, led by Anjali Sankar at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience in London, conducted a search of the brain imaging literature, looking specifically for studies that uncovered the brain changes associated with recovery from depression following various forms of psychotherapy, including CBT and psychodynamic psychotherapy.  The 17 papers they gathered hinted at some consistent patterns, such as decreased amygdala activity after therapy when looking at both emotional and more neutral stimuli, but there were also occasional results that were harder to square – for instance one...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Brain Mental health Therapy Source Type: blogs