Behavioral Activation: one of the most effective therapies against depression.

It allows to treat depression without falling into the side effects of psychotropic drugs.

Both depression and any of the conditions or disorders related to it, have been a great field of research from the point of view of psychological treatment. Throughout the history of psychology, researchers have struggled to develop an effective therapy to alleviate the symptoms of depression in the shortest possible time.

One of these recently developed treatments is Behavioral Activation.. A therapy that starts from the idea that the modification of the patient's behaviors will have a positive impact on his mood.

What is Behavioral Activation?

Behavioral Activation (BA) is a relatively new therapy, with not much more than 30 years of history behind it, that treats depression functionally and from the point of view of the person's context.

According to the creators of this type of intervention, Behavioral Activation relies on the person's context to explain his or her symptoms.. Thus, the therapy argues that acting on this context is much more effective than acting on the symptoms or internal factors, such as neurobiological alterations or psychological symptomatology.

In addition, Behavioral Activation states that the behaviors performed by people with depression are more than simple symptoms of the clinical picture, and that these have a very important significance within the disorder.

The psychological mechanism on which Behavioral Activation is based has to do with the initiation of habits capable of providing immediate and medium-term incentives, capable of making the person more psychologically and mentally active. That is, through new ways of interacting with the environment and with others, a more optimistic and constructive mentality is favored.This means that through new ways of interacting with the environment and with others, a more optimistic and constructive mentality, oriented to concrete goals and on which one can focus, detaching oneself from disturbing thoughts, is favored.

How did it appear?

Behavioral Activation originated from the behavioral techniques carried out within Aaron Beck's Cognitive Therapy.

The initial idea was to make a comparison between the behavioral part of the traditional intervention, the behavioral intervention together with the cognitive and the integrated therapy. After making this comparison, the results showed that only by carrying out a behavioral modification on the patient, the patient presented the same level of improvement as with the complete intervention.

Therefore, it was it was concluded that cognitive modification or cognitive intervention techniques were not as necessary in the treatment of depressionand were only a burden to the treatment. Following these conclusions, it was proposed to consider purely behavioral intervention as a therapy independent of traditional cognitive therapy, becoming what is known today as Behavioral Activation.

It is necessary to specify that although Behavioral Activation does not work on the person's cognition, this is not ignored. Rather, these are expected to change as a consequence of behavioral modifications.

Principles of Behavioral Activation

There are two aspects to take into account when starting an intervention using Behavioral Activation:

• The context or situation that provokes the behavior.
• The functionality or the effects this behavior has on the person.

In this way, Behavioral Activation evaluates and analyzes both the events that appear in the patient's life, and the behavioral responses that he/she gives to these situations. that the patient gives to these situations.

With regard to the person's responses, one of the basic principles of Behavioral Activation is that the person with depression carries out a series of avoidant behaviors as a result of the lack of positive consequence of the lack of positive reinforcement and of the predominance of not very stimulating situations. This avoidance tendency can manifest itself through the interruption of daily tasks and activities, through ruminative thoughts, or through the interactions that the person does or does not have with others.

How is it carried out as a psychological intervention?

Taking into account the principle of behavioral avoidance, Behavioral Activation Therapy aims at reestablish the behavioral dynamics of the person before the depression..

The first step to achieve this is to activate the person, hence the name of the therapy, even though the person is depressed. Through this, Behavioral Activation aims to systematically increase the number of positive behaviors that the person performs with the intention of finding a greater number of reinforcers that promote a change in the person at the level of behavior, cognition and mood.

However, Behavioral Activation does not try to increase the number of behaviors of the person whatever the nature of these behaviors may be. a functional analysis of behavior should be carried out in order to detect to detect those significant and functional behaviors which should be enhanced.

Therefore, Behavioral Activation is a therapy that develops and adapts to the singularities of the patient.

Finally, the dynamic of the therapy is not to modify cognition and mood so that the person changes his/her behavior, but to act in spite of the mood. This particular point is closely associated with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, in which the person must first accept his or her current condition. the person must first accept his or her current condition in order to act to act in order to change it.

Advantages of this type of psychotherapy

Proponents of Behavioral Activation Therapy rely on a number of advantages or benefits that it brings compared to other therapies such as pharmacological or cognitive.

These advantages are the following.

1. De-medicalization

Behavioral Activation is presented as an effective and fast alternative to pharmacological treatment for depression, being as effective as this one and without the need of pharmacological treatment.It is as effective as the latter and does not cause unwanted side effects.

Therefore, this discourse in favor of de-medicalization has gained many followers.

2. Alternative to cognitive therapy

As an alternative to cognitive therapy, Behavioral Activation has proven to be much more effective and with much faster results.. Since the modification of thoughts and beliefs requires a greater investment of time.

3. Rapid results

Thanks to the adjustment of the therapy to the patient's needs and the structuring of the therapy, Behavioral Activation is a therapy that requires few sessions, about 15 sessions. is a therapy that requires only a few sessions, approximately 15 sessions, which means rapid results and an economic advantage compared to other forms of psychological intervention.This means rapid results and an economic advantage in comparison with other forms of psychological intervention.

Bibliographical references:

• Jacobson, N.S.; Dobson, K.S.; Truax, P.A.; Addis, M.E.; Koerner, K.; Gollan, J.K.; Gortner, E. & Prince, S.E. (1996). A component analysis of cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 64 (2): pp. 295 - 304.
• Martell, C.R.; Addis, M.E. & Jacobson, N.S. (2001). Depression in context: Strategies for guided action. New York: W. W. Norton.
• Twyman, J.S. (2007). A new era of science and practice inbehavior analysis. Association for Behavior Analysis International: Newsletter, 30(3): pp. 1 - 4.