ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Cognitive Behavioral approaches to treating depression. Depression in cancer patients is linked to a host of problems including greater disability, increased risk of mortality, increased report of pain, increased rates of utilization of hospital-based care, and heightened risk of suicide. The psychotherapeutic guidelines are used to assess for depression and to target problems for intervention. One key avenue for understanding depression in cancer patients is to access and explore the cognitive content and processes that may be fueling depressive emotion and behaviour. Cognitive biases in depression can fuel suffering, as identified in Beck's Cognitive Triad as well as other cognitive biases that may contribute to depression. Rigid and inflexible rules can also be implicated in non-acceptance and in depression. Rumination is a cognitive process that serves as a key risk factor for depression recurrence and is a key maintaining factor for a current episode of depression.
