Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral to Hypnotherapeutic Treatment of Depression

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is considered to be an effective psychological treatment of mild to moderate Major Depressive Episodes. Effective treatments, however, show a reduction of depressive symptoms only up to 50 % (Luty et al., 2007) which is one reason for the modification of the well-established CBT in the last years. Following the 'third wave' approaches of CBT, e.g. Emotion-Focussed Therapy or Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, techniques like meditation or the use of systemic or Gestalt techniques within CBT has been applied. Within this context, Hypnotherapy-based strategies can also show an improvement of the current state of the art in depression psychotherapy. However, only few studies conducted randomised controlled trials to study the efficacy of hypnosis for depression as e.g. the comparison of cognitive hypnotherapy to CBT-alone (e.g. Alladin and Alibhai, 2007). With the present study, the efficacy of the Hypnotherapeutic Treatment of Depression (HDT) will be compared to the CBT-based Activation-focussed Cognitive Treatment of Depression (ACDT). Both treatments are individually administered and includes 20 sessions. We expect HDT not being inferior to ACDT in the reduction of depressive symptoms after six months of treatment.

Inclusion criteria

• DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) criteria for current mild to moderate Major Depressive Episode (MDE)
• Informed consent
• Fluent in German
• Time for weekly therapy sessions
• Stable antidepressant medication since three months

Exclusion criteria

• A history of lifetime bipolar disorder, psychotic symptoms
• A diagnosis of a chronic Major Depressive Disorder (total duration of two years and more)
• Fulfilling the DSM-5 criteria for current severe MDE or scores in MADRS >/= 35 or QIDSC16 (Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology) >/= 16
• Remission of current MDE since more than four weeks prior to inclusion assessment
• Acute risk for suicide
• Severe cognitive impairment (confirmed suspicion with Mini-Mental-State-Test > 25)
• A dominating primary diagnosis of another axis I disorder including anxiety disorders (e.g. Panic disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Anorexia nervosa, Borderline personality disorder), or any severe substance-related abuse or dependence disorder
• A physical illness which would interfere with regular psychotherapy sessions
• Outpatient psychotherapy during the last 12 months