Therapist and patient speech in cognitive depression therapy: assessment and discussion

Abstract

SummaryThis study examines changes in language markers in patient and therapist speech over the course of a 12-session cognitive depression therapy. Sessions 4, 8 and 12 were analyzed for the following clinical and language indices:– scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory.– relative frequency of predicative verb categories, deictics, modalization and situation markers in patient and therapist speech (propositional analysis). The findings show that language indices change significantly and correlatively with therapeutic change, and can thus serve as one measure of the changes in the patient’s psychological organization brought about by cognitive depression therapy.